Curse of the Lucario
by talkingbirdguy
Summary: Jason Simmons is a high school student who is driving to school one day when he hits a Lucario. A day later, while at high school, he changes into a Lucario. He tries to live normally, but Team Styx decides to take that option from him. It's my first fanfic (so have mercy on the first chapter). Please review. Rated T for mild language and blood. Character suggestions very welcome.
1. Chapter 1 Meeting Lucario

Curse of the Lucario chap 1

I'm going to go ahead and tell everyone, this story will not contain any Lemons. If you came here for that, then you will be surely disappointed by the lack of such situations. If you came here to read a good story, then I can oblige. This is my first FanFiction, so please be merciful.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Pokemon. I do not claim to own any Pokemon characters, buildings, or anything related to Pokemon. I only claim to own this story, which is of my own making.

And with that out of the way, enjoy. :)

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Chapter 1

I have been been around Pokemon my entire life. I've had several as pets, friends, and a few that I've grown up with. I've never had any sort of desire to capture them or become a breeder. My name is Jason Simmons and I live in the countryside with my mom, dad, and our herd of mareep and miltank. I am sixteen and currently in tenth grade at a small high school that no one from out of state has heard of.

I was driving along a road, headed to school, when my life was changed.

As I drove, I saw a blue blur appear in front of my vehicle and slammed on my breaks.

Unfortunately, I was too late and my front bumper slammed into the unsuspecting Pokemon, sending it flying to the right and into the forest.

After screeching to a halt on the side of the road, I unbuckled and hopped out of my car.

I looked around and determined which direction the Pokemon landed and headed there at a sprint.

I got to the side of the road and scanned the ground all around me. Finally, I saw it. I saw something laying on the ground that was covered in blue fur all over expect on its chest, which was gold.

"Oh Arceus! Lucario, it's a Lucario."

I ran down the steep drop from the road to it and got on my knees next to it.

"Come on, wake up!" I checked its pulse

Alive, but weak. Shockingly, his eyes opened and I froze with guilt.

I heard his voice, via the power of aura that Lucario could command, "I know it wasn't your intention. Do not feel guilty. It wasn't your fault."

I started blubbering, "you're going to be fine, just relax. I'm going to call for some help."

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket, and after several fumbled tries, finally punched in the number for emergency services.

"Hello? This is officer Jenny. What is your situation?"

"I hit a Lucario! He's in bad shape and needs medical help immediately!"

"I am sending a medical team now. What is your location?"

I told her where I was and she promised that they would be there in seven minutes.

I hung up and focused on Lucario again. I saw that his right leg was busted up and he had blood soaked fur on his chest. Even the spike in the middle of his chest was soaked in blood.

"Oh Arceus." I felt horrible, I caused this pain. This suffering.

"Not your fault, I wasn't watching," Lucario spoke again, absurdly trying to comfort me while in obvious agony.

Wait? Hurt Pokemon?

I had a sudden burst of inspiration and asked, "do you have a trainer? He could put you in a pokeball." The pokeball acted almost like a stasis chamber where a Pokemon could heal, or at least not get worse, until the trainer gets to a Pokemon center or hospital.

"No. I have no trainer."

My hopes dropped, but they picked up again when I heard sirens in the distance.

"Just wait here, help is almost here."

I saw Lucario close his eyes and pass out and I swallowed down bile.

I ran back up to the road and flagged down the ambulance when it got close enough.

The usual team of two men and a nurse got out of the vehicle and rushed over to me.

"Over here! He's really hurt, please hurry!"

I pointed to where Lucario was and they hurried over to him with boxes in their arms.

"We need a stretcher!", the nurse instructed the two men and they rushed back to the vehicle and grabbed a stretcher.

I stood on the sidelines as they worked to stabilize Lucario and get him on the stretcher.

They got him into the ambulance and the nurse came to me.

"Lucario was able to tell us it wasn't your fault. You are free to go if you wish."

"O-ok. Will I be able to see Lucario in the hospital?"

"Of course. We must be going."

I nodded and she went back to the ambulance and they sped off with their lights on and sirens howling.

I went back to my vehicle and noticed that there was very little damage to it.

This made me both angry and extremely sad. Lucario was busted up because of me and what was my punishment? Nothing!

I drove myself home, calling that day a sick day. Once I got home, I sat on my couch and just stared emptily into space. I sat there for hours, tilting between anger and worry, until I decided to go to the hospital.

I drove to the hospital in a almost daze. And when I got there, I rushed in there to the front desk.

"Excuse me, but which room is the Lucario in?" Seeing a Lucario around where I lived was very rare, so it was very unlikely that there would be another in the hospital.

The guy who was there looked up the room on the computer and gave me directions to the room.

I headed to the elevator but instead took the stairs, deciding that they would be faster.

"Room thirty-seven B", I repeated under my breath like a prayer.

I walked past what felt like a hundred doors, until I found it.

I put my hand on the door, and stopped. I took a deep breath before I forced myself to push the door open. I saw that the room was empty aside from Lucario, who was laying on a bed covered in bandages. I saw he had a heart monitor hooked up and that the beeping was the only sound in the room.

"Oh Lucario." I felt new grief at the outcome of my accident and felt the need to help him somehow.

I went in and sat next to the hospital bed. I didn't say anything while I sat there.

I just sat there and swallowed back tears.

About thirty minutes later, I felt my phone buzz and I checked it.

It was a text from my mom.

"Where are you? I got a call from school saying you weren't there today and I called the home phone. Where?" Of course the school would call my parents, I had a perfect record for attendance. My mom was probably making sure I was alright. She trusted me enough to know that I wouldn't cut school for anything not important.

"I'm at the hospital. I hit a Lucario today and I'm next to him now." I had to wipe away a few tears before I hit send.

A moment later, she responded.

"Oh… well. When you are ready to come home, we will be here for you."

"Thanks."

I put my phone away and saw Lucario watching me.

"Lucario! You're awake. How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

Lucario shook his head no.

"Do you feel any pain?"

This time he nodded yes.

"I'll go get a nurse. Just a minute."

I rushed out of the room and flagged down a passing nurse.

"Excuse me, Lucario says he is feeling some pain. Can you help?"

"Yes, let me through."

I moved aside and she went in and adjusted a few things. Moments later, I saw Lucario seem to relax.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Is this your Lucario?"

"No. I-", I had to hold back new tears, "I'm the one who hit him."

"Oh. Well, if he feels any more pain, hit that button please." She pointed at a button beside the bed and left.

I sat back down and saw that Lucario had fallen back asleep.

I don't know how long it took until I finally succumbed to slumber. But when I did, I had the strangest dream. It was one where I was running very quickly through some forest.

Wait? I knew this place.

I saw out of the corner of the dream a particular large hill with a windmill on it that spun lazily.

These were the woods that I was driving through earlier? Why would I be dreaming about that?

The dream kept moving and I started to get on the road that I recognized.

"No!" I tried to shout to the dream, trying to get it to stop.

Trying to change what I did.

But to no avail. Lucario got on the road, and because of his heavy breathing and way he was looking, didn't notice the vehicle heading straight for him.

Right at the point of impact, I woke up and held back a scream that had rose in my throat.

I got my heart rate under control and a few seconds later, the nurse from earlier came in.

"Oh, you're awake. I hate to tell you this, but visiting hours are over. You need to get home."

I started to protest, but she held up a finger.

"Look, I know you feel bad about Lucario. But getting yourself in trouble is not going to help him any. And anyways, I'll give you my number. If anything happens, I'll call. Will that suffice?"

I nodded and I wrote my number on a piece of paper while she wrote hers on my hand.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"Lilly Brown. You?"

"Jason Simmons. Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome, now get going."

"Yes ma'am." And I went home.

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I went back and fixed some mistakes in this chapter. There's probably a few that are still there, but I made it a little better thanks to some suggestions from readers. Please review and send in any suggestion that you would like to see in the story. I love hearing people's opinions on my work, so please send in a PM or review. This is my first FanFiction, so please be merciful if it doesn't meet expectations. The chapters will get much longer than this. I just thought this was a good place to stop and see how people liked it. And aside from Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, all other characters are original.


	2. Chapter 2 It happens

Curse of the Lucario chap 2

Again, I do not own any credit for the pokemon related creatures, buildings, or people. Just the story. Which I have created. Please enjoy. And sorry for taking so long in writing these, I just like writing a lot and then posting.

Chapter 2

I got home around eleven and my mom, being so epic, was still awake.

"Oh honey, how are you feeling? You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No mom. I'm fine."

I saw her let out a tense breath and nod.

"Well good. Is there anything you need to talk about?"

"No thank you."

"Well if there is, just call me."

"Yes ma'am. I'm going to bed now." I let out a yawn and she laughed.

"Me too. Night."

"Goodnight." I got changed and went to bed.

For the most part, my dreams were normal. That is, until Sir Aaron decided to butt in on my bliss.

Sir Aaron was the man who saved some kingdom long ago by sacrificing himself. He was famous for being one of the few humans to be able to channel the power of aura. It was even said that he was raised by Lucario in a few stories.

But in my dream, he appeared on a grassy plain. Strange enough, I heard the rustling of the grass and felt the dirt below my bare feet. Sir Aaron was wearing his usual blue clothes but was missing his famous staff.

"It wasn't your fault." I heard Aaron speak and wondered what he meant.

Then the forgetful haze of sleep was snatched away and I remembered everything in perfect clarity.

"Though it wasn't your fault. And since Lucario seems to really forgive you. I'm going to give you a gift that can't be returned. Not without knowing another's life. Let you know the pain of Lucario."

He extended a staff that wasn't in his hands a moment before and a blue beam of light shot out of it and slammed straight into my chest.

Well, slammed into my chest is a bit vague. It was more of a slight push, with most of the energy actually going into my body.

Whatever it did, it caused all my muscles to seize up and I fell to the ground it acute agony.

"This is not it. But it is what I can do. Farewell, and good luck."

I couldn't respond, and moments later, Sir Aaron and the pain faded away.

I don't know how long it took, but I finally opened my eyes to the real world.

Less than a minute later, my alarm went off, telling me to get up.

I debated between trying to get ten more minutes of sleep, but decided to instead go ahead and get up.

After I showered and ate breakfast, I headed to school. I arrived at my usual time, which was about fifteen minutes early, and I just relaxed in my car for the remaining time.

Normally, I would have headed into the gym and talked to my friends before class, but that day I didn't feel like it.

I waited until I heard the shrill bell, then headed to first period, which was History.

When my teacher asked about my absence the previous day, I just gave them my sick day excuse and they accepted it.

Everything was just fine, that is, until sixth period science.

We were doing an experiment with potassium and water, there had been several small explosions already and one guy lost an eyebrow.

It was pretty normal, we were recording the reactions on our papers. I was partners with a girl who barely noticed me. I was considered the, "nerd", of our class. And I was totally cool with the title, I loved being smart. Well she barely noticed me, per usual, and as I was recording the latest reaction, I felt a presence behind me.

"Hey Simmons, show me what you got on experiment three." It was my old bully, Thomas. He had bullied me since seventh grade and was still being a pain in the ass today.

"No. Ask someone else." If he had asked nicely and not told me, to give him the answer, I might have. But instead I turned my back to him and finished writing what I had been.

I thought that was the end of it, but he grabbed my shoulder and jerked me back.

"Do you think that was a request? Give it to me." I nearly heaved at the smell of alcohol in his breath. Somehow he had snuck in some and was partially drunk.

"Let go of me. Now." I told him in a level tone as I could muster.

At that point most of the class had noticed, except the teacher, and was watching us.

"Fine, here you go." He shoved pretty hard and I slammed into a chair and tripped, which also caused me to hit my head on a desk.

That's when it happened. The room was dead silent and the teacher had noticed what happened to me. I was already standing back up, but I didn't remember ever doing so.

I saw the teacher, Mr Mattes, open his mouth to speak. But he closed it and got a scared look in his eyes.

I then noticed that everyone had a scared look, and they were looking at me.

I looked at myself and saw that I was covered in a blue light all over my body.

Suddenly, I felt excruciating pain and started to howl in pain. It was centered at my chest and I saw that there was a bulge at the center of my chest that quickly got bigger. It ripped through my shirt and I saw that it was bone white and pointed.

The rest of my body began to tingle and I saw hair begin to sprout everywhere on my body. The back of my hands also grew those horrible bone-like things. I felt my hair recede and large dreadlock-like things replace it. My legs reshaped and I could feel my bones being changed.

My face also seemed to elongate, and I could see the bridge of my nose easily. My ears got much longer and felt much heavier. I felt my teeth grow sharper and my jaw reshape itself to fit this new structure my body demanded. I saw my hands change into paws with three fingers. I had shorts on and I saw my legs get covered in black fur and change shape.

All over my body, hair grew and my bones changed. I grew a tail!

After what seemed like an eternity, it all stopped, and I stopped howling.

The room was dead silent aside from the hammering on the door from worried students. My own breathing had been stopped by shock. I was staring at my hands... or paws, when he spoke.

"Jason?"

I looked up and saw Mr Mattes looking at me with a plain expression on his face.

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a intelligible grunt/growl.

I couldn't talk, all that I could do was weird noises.

"What the hell! I shove the nerd and he turns into a Lucario? What!?" Thomas looked enraged and his face was extremely bright red.

"Thomas! Get a hold of yourself right now!" Mr Mattes had always disliked Thomas and was standing up for me now.

At that point, a teacher must have arrived and opened the door from the outside.

Ms Vicky, a ninth grade English teacher, busted in and stared at me.

"What in the world is going on in here? What happened?"

There was a moment of complete silence before Nicole, my partner, said, "I think that Jason just transformed into a Lucario."

The rest of the class nodded mutly and I lowered my head in shame.

For a minute Ms Vicky said nothing, then looked at me.

"Mr Simmons, I suggest you come with me." She turned around and walked out, leaving no room for argument, even though I couldn't speak anyways.

She led me to the front office. As we walked, students lined the hallway and watched me as I went past. I saw that my clothes were in tatters and really didn't care at the time. My shoes had fallen off after I had transformed, not fit to the task any more.

She told me to sit down in a chair in the front office and I did so, having to sit on the side of the chair to not crush my own tail.

I sat in there for ten minutes, waiting. Eleven minutes later, I felt a buzz in my pocket. It was very difficult due to my hips being wider than they usually were, but I managed to get it out of my pocket and saw it was a text from my friend Connor.

"Jason, I've heard some crazy rumor that you turned into a Lucario. What's that about?"

It took more effort than usual, but I managed to send back, "yes. Transformed. Don't know why. Can't talk."

Moments later, he sent back a link to a video. I clicked on it and it loaded in seconds.

It was labeled, "freak transforms into Lucario. Not a scam!" I hit the button for it to start the video and it showed me when I was covered in that blue light.

I saw my transformation from the view of someone in the back of the room. Frankly, it was something out of a horror movie. My bones seemed to snap into place sickeningly. The fur that sprouted out of my skin seemed to be from those cartoons that would use hair growth cream that would turn out to be a horribly bad idea.

"God," I tried to say. But all that came out was a grunt.

I heard someone sneeze and noticed several students standing in the hallway open mouthed.

"So it's true. Someone did turn into a Lucario."

I saw several of them with their phones out and pointed at me. Obviously on video or picture mode.

The principles door opened and the students proceeded to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Mr Jason. Please come in here." Ms Perry, the principle, held the door for me as I walked in.

Unfortunately, as I walked in, I stood just across from a large mirror and saw myself in all my pokelistic glory. I saw I had the mask-like fur across my eyes, that were tinted red.

"Please take a seat." She put her hand on my arm and gently led me away from the mirror.

After she sat me down, I saw the schools doctor come in and jump.

"Ms Cindy. Please come in."

"Yes ma'am. What do you need?" She ripped her gaze off of me and looked at Ms Perry.

"I asked you here to see Mr Simmons. Who has, well. Turned into a Lucario."

"What do you want me to do? We aren't exactly taught how to reverse human mutations."

"Just see what you can do. Take some DNA tests to see what caused this or something!"

"Yes ma'am."

Ms Cindy grabbed a cotton swab out of here little box, and asked, "do you mind if I get some saliva from you?"

I shook my head no, and she hesitated.

"Does that mean you don't mind, or you don't want me to?"

I held up one of my fingers and she nodded.

"Please open your mouth."

So I did and she collected spit and a few strands of my fur.

She packed everything up in some plastic bags and said that she was going to go to a friend to get the stuff tested.

"Yes, thank you. Please call me when you find anything out."

"Yes ma'am."

When she left, I turned back to Ms Perry with (what I assume was my eyebrow) my eyebrow raised.

"What? Do you need anything?"

It wasn't my intention, but my stomach grumbled loudly and Ms Perry smiled.

"Right, you should be having lunch soon. I'll go get some for you. Please stay here."

I nod and she left.

Please leave a review or something. That's the only reward I get out of this. And sorry for taking so long to write this, I've been writing a lot of it and too busy to actually upload it. (Already on chapter 5) I'll try to upload once a week until it's done. Pm me if you have suggestions or just post a review.


	3. Chapter 3

Curse of the Lucario chap 3

Again, I do not own any credit for the pokemon related creatures, buildings, or people. Just the story. Which I have created. Please enjoy. And sorry for taking so long in writing these, I just like writing a lot and then posting. Enjoy.

Chapter 3

I texted Connor a little more.

"Dude! Send me a pic!"

I was simultaneously annoyed and entertained by him. So I took a quick photo and sent it to him. Attached with, "believe me now?"

"Definitely. What happened?"

"Long story. I have to go."

"Ok."

I managed at put my phone up right before the principle came back in. Strange enough, I was still scared of getting my phone taken up if she saw it.

"Thanks for waiting. It took me awhile to explain to the lunch staff."

She gave me a exasperated shrug and I nodded.

She handed me a plate with some fruit, a hamburger, and some Mac and cheese.

I nodded my thanks and she nodded while smiling.

"You just eat up. I'm going to make a few calls, ok?"

I tried saying my confirmation, and only growled. But nodded and began to eat.

The hardest thing about eating with three fingers? Probably the fact that it is difficult to hold your fork in any other way than the way you have done your whole life.

After awhile, I just started eating the fruit with my fingers. Much easier.

I finished eating and just sat in the chair, looking at my body.

I felt my arms, they were slightly more muscular than usual and felt basically the same. It was odd having only three fingers, though my legs were even stranger. The curve that I now had was slightly discerning. The spikes on my chest had completely ripped through my shirt and felt really sharp. The same could be said for the spikes on my hands. The dreadlock-like aura sensing organs that hung from the back of my head were actually pretty tough. I could move them around with just a thought, but couldn't do much else with them. My ears were much taller than normal and I could hear much better, but I felt as though I could block sounds out very easily.

As I was inspecting my body, I saw several people pass the window outside.

I got up, curious, and went to the window to see who it was. I saw three students (two guys and a girl) go by who had pokeballs in hand.

I heard one of them speak, "didn't you say that there was a training field nearby?"

The other guy spoke, "yeah. It's just a little farther. Why you in a hurry? Ready to get your butt kicked like last time?"

The first guy scoffed. "Yeah right. We've been training hard and there is no way that we will lose!"

They turned a corner and I couldn't hear any more. I guess they were a part of the schools trainer program. A program that aspiring trainers could join while in high school to be able to start their journey, with a education to fall back on. Just in case.

I never felt much desire to become a trainer. It just never was a real life option to me. I was about to sit back down when I had a burst of inspiration. I knew that Lucario could speak to people and pokemon via aura. So all I had to do was to find a Lucario and, somehow, learn the power of the aura from it.

I sat there for a little while before hearing a loud booming sound from the side of the building.

I immediately jumped up and ran out of the office and to the general area of the sound.

The door that led to the outside that was closest happened to be the door to the training field. I ran through them and saw that two of the trainers that I had seen earlier were battling.

"Nice aerial ace! Broke the sound barrier that time. Too bad it was too slow for Scyther."

I relaxed and was about to head back inside when the girl, who was being the ref, noticed me.

"Hey! It's a Lucario!" She pointed at me and distracted both of the trainers.

"Why is it wearing those clothes?"

"Wow! I wonder if it has a trainer?" The one with the Scyther returned his pokemon and his opponent did the same. They all walked over to me and started talking.

"So do you have a trainer? Or are you wild?"

I held up one finger and the guy with the bird pokemon looked confused.

"Can't Lucario communicate using aura?"

I nod.

"Well why aren't you?"

I open my mouth and closed it. Talking wouldn't work, but perhaps writing would.

I went over to a patch of dirt that was laying on the side of the sidewalk and began to write.

"Hello. My name is Jason Simmons. I have been turned into a Lucario quite recently and haven't been able to talk via aura yet."

When I got finished writing, I let them see and they all got wide eyes.

"Seriously? Turned into a pokemon? Wow." I hear the Scyther guy say.

I nod and shrug.

"What does it feel like?" The other guy asks.

I start to bend back down, but the girl stopped me. "Wait. Try this. It's probably faster than writing in the dirt. She handed me a tablet and I clicked on a writing app.

"Thanks. And it feels like I'm in my own body. But slightly different."

I showed them my answer and they sort of nodded.

"Well that explains the clothes."

"Hey, do you want to train with us? It might get you used to your own body."

I thought about it for a moment, and wrote on her tablet. "Sure. But do any of you know what moves Lucario knows? I am not much of a pokemon researcher."

"Yeah. Lucario knows: aura sphere, metal claw, force palm, extremespeed, and that's all I know."

I nodded and typed, "ok. Let me practice for a minute. Don't want to get creamed too badly."

They all nodded and I joined them on the trainers field.

"You might want to start with regular kicks and punches. And then move on to the actual moves. But hand me my tablet back first, please."

I handed the girl her tablet back and tried to punch and kick imaginary targets. The physical actions came surprising easy. Next I tried to envision the metallic claws extending from my fingers and they came easily.

I simply let my concentration fade away and the claws went away. Now for a aura sphere.

I put my hands in the position that I had seen Lucarios do before and concentrated.

Moments later, I felt the energy build and released it at the sky.

"Dang. That was fast. Are you ready to battle?"

The guy who had the Scyther came over to me and waited for my answer.

I nod and went to the other side of the field.

I saw the guy get into the box that he was supposed to be in and he sent out his Scyther.

"I think this is a decent match up. Is that alright with you?"

I nod and get ready.

"Ok, Scyther, fury swipes!"

I waited till the Scyther had gotten a meter away before I jumped into the air and shot a aura sphere straight down at the Scyther.

The Scyther let out a cry of pain and went flying to my side of the field.

I landed and got ready for the next attack. There was none. I saw that Scyther did not get up and the trainer groaned loudly.

"Aww man! Already over? That was a fast match." I jumped at the new voice and looked at the origin.

I saw Ms Perry standing on the sidelines looking uncomfortable. And there was a pokemon ranger standing next to her. The man was the source of the new voice.

"Mr Simmons, I'm not sure why you are out here, but you should really be-"

"Wait." The pokemon ranger interrupted her and she stopped.

"Why don't help him figure out his new body by letting him battle a little more. It will probably help him learn all its capabilities."

"Well. I suppose so. But we must stop it before he gets too terribly hurt."

I nod my agreement and we continue the battle.

I'm not sure if I was really strong, the trainers pokemon was really weak, or something else. But I utterly destroyed the guys pokemon with only a slight bruise to show.

When I finished his last pokemon, we went back to the principals office and we all sat down.

After she explained what had apparently happened to me to the ranger, with me nodding occasionally, he sat back and put his hand on his head.

"Wow. I've been all over the world a few times. But I have never heard of a story quite like this."

I got out my phone and typed in it, "can you help?"

After showing it to him, he shook his head. "I have no clue how I would help. This isn't exactly a thing pokemon rangers are trained to take care of."

He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Well thank you for coming Mr Brown. If you find anything that could help, please call."

The ranger, Mr Brown, nodded and left.

As he left, the phone on Ms Perry's desk rang.

She picked it up and said, "hello. This is Ms Perry."

With my sensitive hearing I heard the conversation with the other person easily.

"Hello Ms Perry, this is Cindy. I just got the results of the testing."

"Well? What did you find out?"

I got excited for a minute.

"The results only showed Lucario DNA. It appears that his own genes were altered down to the tiniest detail. We have no clue to indicate that he ever was anything aside from a Lucario."

Ms Perry sighed. "Thanks for the news."

"I'll call a few of my old school friends to see if they have ever heard of something like this."

"Thanks Cindy. For the next few days, just do that. I'll have someone cover for you."

"Yes ma'am." And Ms Cindy hung up.

Ms Perry looked at me, "I assume you listened to all that?"

I nodded, only slightly guilty. I typed into my phone, "yeah. Sorry. By the way. Have you told my parents yet?"

I saw Ms Perry wince.

"No. I haven't. Do you want me to call them now?"

I nod, and she sighed.

She had me leave the room and sit in the office again for the call.

After she called, she told me, "I called your mom and told her the biggest details. She is headed here right now. I couldn't get your dad's phone. Said it was busy."

I nod my thanks and she stands there awkwardly.

Lucky for me, another student walked in with the familiar referral note.

She grabbed onto the distraction gladly and herded the student in her office.

Please leave a review or something. That's the only reward I get out of this. Suggestions are welcome.


	4. Chapter 4

Curse of the Lucario chap 4

I don't own any of the credit for pokemon related stuff. Only the story. Insert rest of legal crap here_. Enjoy.

Ps, this is sort of a filler chapter. Not super important, but necessary.

Chapter 4

I heard the sound of the schools door opening and I looked up right as my mom rushed into the room.

She stared at me for a moment and said in a little voice, "Jason?"

I stood up and nodded.

"Oh Jason. What happened? How?" She came over to me and tried to hug me, but I pushed her away, gesturing at my chest spike.

She nodded and wiped her nose, "you can't speak?"

I shook my head and grabbed my phone.

"No. But if I can figure out the power of aura, I'll be able to."

She read it and nodded. "Yes. We can find a Lucario. Perhaps we can have someone teach you."

At that, Ms Perry got finished with the other student and came out of her office.

"Oh. Ms Simmons. Hello." I could tell that she was completely stressed. She had no clue what to do.

I typed into my phone and handed it to Ms Perry.

"Perhaps today should be considered a sick day and my mom should check me out?"

Ms Perry nodded and handed back my phone.

"Yes. Perhaps you should take Jason home. We can either have his work sent to him or we can work something out."

My mom agreed and checked me out.

After leaving school, we headed home and I went into my upstairs room when my mom contacted my dad to tell him the news.

I made sure to tune out the conversation and instead went to my laptop.

After some tinkering, I figured out how to download a little application that spoke the words that you typed onto it. Would be much faster than the method I had been using.

When it finally finished, I tested it with a few simple sentences.

After I established that it worked, albeit with a robots monotone, I started downstairs.

When I got to the bottom, I heard the doorbell ring.

"Jason, can you please get that?" My mom was still busy with explaining to my father. A task I would not trade anything for.

I didn't respond and went to the door, the moment I opened it. I regretted it. It was one of my friends dad. He was the owner of the town's local news site. Nice guy, but not a person I wanted to see right now.

"Um. Hello. Is this the Simmons household?"

I nod and the man smiled widely.

"And are you Jason Simmons?"

I nodded and he smiled even wider, somehow.

"So it's true, you've really turned into a Lucario?"

I nodded, a bit annoyed at what this was leading to.

"Do you mind if I come in and ask a few questions?"

I typed into my computer app and hit play. "I'm sorry but no. I am not going to be speaking to anyone until I get my life somewhat stable or returned to normal."

His face fell and he started pleading, "come on, just one or two? My boss will kill me if I don't get a story or at least a comment from you."

I typed and hit play. "Look. I really don't care. I hate to sound rude, but that is the case right now. I have to ask you to please leave."

His face showed equal parts annoyance and desperation. "Well can you at least take my card? If you ever feel like an interview?"

I nod, finding no harm in taking his card.

After doing so, I closed the door and went into the living room where my mom was sitting on the couch.

"Yes you should come home! Our son has turned into a pokemon! You need to be here!" After my dad replied, he hung up and my mom let out a sigh.

"How did he take it?", I typed.

"Good. Under the circumstances. Who was at the door?"

"No one."

She nodded, probably not caring.

In the silence, I remember my daily chores and typed up, "have you fed the mareep and miltank?"

She shook her head and started to get up, I raised my hand to stop her.

"I'll do it. You just relax."

She laughed at the message. "You know, I'm the one who's supposed to comfort you and make you relax. Not the opposite." She chuckled a little longer and even I cracked a smile.

"Well, you go feed them. I'll prepare some supper." She stood up and headed to the kitchen.

I headed out to the fields and grabbed the buckets that I had filled with various berries and nuts. While grass fulfilled most of the dietary needs of the mareep and miltank, the berries and nuts helped them stay completely healthy.

I lugged the bucket out to the field and rang the bell next to the gate. We had installed the bell a few years ago as a sort of dinner bell. The pokemon knew that when the bell was rung, food would be arriving soon and they should head in the gates direction.

Sure enough, the pokemon came and they didn't even flinch at my appearance. It was slightly odd, but I didn't bother trying to figure it out.

After making sure every pokemon had enough, I put the bucket up and headed back to the house.

The walk between the field and my house is about three minutes at a steady stroll. It was completely barren of trees or any kind of foliage save some tall grass that needed cutting.

That's why, when the trainer appeared, it was such a shock. Perhaps it was because it was almost dark that the trainer didn't notice my clothes.

"Wow! A Lucario! It must be my lucky day." I jumped at the sound of a guy's voice.

He had come from the forest nearby, I assumed, and must have been passing through when he noticed me.

While some people were uncomfortable with trainers going through their property, it was an accepted custom in the south. So no one thought anything about it.

"Do you have a trainer?" The guy readies a pokeball when I shook my head.

"Perfect! Then you're mine!" He sent out a Geodude and grabbed a extra, supposedly unused, pokeball out of his backpack.

I rolled my eyes and continued to walk back to my house.

"Hey wait! I want to battle. Get back here!"

The guy looked angry now, but I simply looked over my shoulder and shook my head, and kept walking.

"Geodude! Rock smash!" The guy yells at the pokemon and I heard the upcoming attack.

I barely managed to jump to the side to avoid the attack and kept walking.

"Why won't you battle me! Get back here!"

Thankfully, my mom must have heard the racket and came out of the house.

"What are you doing back here! Why are you attacking him?"

At my mom's appearance, the trainers who attitude changed.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I assumed that was a wild Lucario. I did not realize he was your pokemon. I will be off."

My mom nodded and I finished my walk back to the house.

My mom had finished supper by then and we went ahead and ate. Thankfully, she made just some sandwhiches, so I could eat them no problem.

My dad got home about thirty minutes later after we finished and we all sat down in the living room to discuss my current condition.

"So you have turned into a Lucario." My dad says with a straight face.

I held back a sigh, my dad always liked to go over all the facts about ten times to make sure he knew everything. But I nodded.

"And you aren't sure what caused this?" I nod, though I have a feeling.

"And you have to use that computer to speak because your vocal cords cannot form human sounds?"

This time I typed into the said computer, "yup. Is that all the questions?"

He nodded, sat back on the couch, and groaned.

I looked at my mom and we both laughed, yes I could still laugh.

After a minute, my dad joined in and we all just laughed. No real reason at that point, just trying to take some stress off of a very unorthodox situation.

After awhile, we all stopped and decided it was about time for bed.

Just when I had started going up the stairs to my room, the doorbell rang.

Since the door was right next to the stairs, and I was right there, I opened the door.

I opened it wearily, watching for another reporter or something of that sort. But it was only Nicole.

I opened the door all the way and waved at her.

"Umm. Hey Jason. I just brought your stuff. Your backpack and the shoes, that you, well… left." She handed them to me and I put them to the side.

I could tell she was feeling awkward and I spared her.

I typed, "thanks a lot for that."

"No problem. And cool way of adapting to the lack of voice situation."

I smiled and nodded.

"Well. I'll see you at school, whenever." She walked back to her car and I closed the door with a final wave.

My mom walked in right as I shut the door.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"Just a friend returning the stuff I left at school."

"Well that was nice. Anybody I know? Any pretty girls?"

"No." Well Nicole was pretty, but I wouldn't let my mom be able to pick on me with that kind of information.

"Ok, goodnight."

I grunted and headed up to bed.

After carefully taking off what I had on, I just decided to sleep without clothes. The fur covered everything indecent and felt like a layer of clothing anyways. So I didn't really feel embarrassed.

After finding a comfortable way of sleeping without smashing my tail or stabbing the bed, I fell asleep.

Please post a review or something. That is all the reward I get for writing these. Just a happy face or a way to improve is also welcome. Suggestions are welcome as well. But any inappropriate comments or flames will be bounced back. And tell some other people as well please, I've been dying for more feedback.


	5. Chapter 5 Reporters and the WPO

Curse of the Lucario chap 5

I don't own any of the pokemon related people, creatures, or buildings. They belong to the actual company who owns pokemon. Please enjoy.

Chapter 5

My alarm woke me up at the lovely time of 6:30 with a irritating radio host laughing about something. I groaned as I leaned over to hit the snooze button and winced when I put weight on my tail. The pain woke me up fully and I knew I wasn't going to get back to the warm bliss of sleep.

I laid there and finally paid attention to what the radio was saying.

"And now, for crazy tales!" I sat up and turned the radio up for this one. I always listened to crazy tales, he always had something insane that would amuse anyone. Usually.

"Today, I'm only going to have time to do one tale. Due to the time it's gonna take up explaining it."

I groaned but shrugged, it was probably going to be a good story if it took awhile to explain.

"When I was surfing all over the place, looking for good stories, this one caught my eye and I had to share it. Apparently, some kid around our area has turned into a Lucario! Nuts right?"

My stomach fell as I kept on listening.

"Well yesterday, some kid called Jason Simmons was shoved by some guy while in his science class. Witnesses claim that he shot up from the ground and started glowing a strange blue light. Then he started growing fur, his legs changed, and he grew a tail! When he stopped he was a Lucario in every sense of the word."

It felt like my stomach had hit rock bottom, but there was more.

"Oh, it seems as though he have a caller who claims to have been in the room at the time of the transformation. She's being put through. Hello?"

"Yeah, I was there." I recognized the voice of Nicole and my heart jumped slightly.

"Can you tell us what you saw personally? Leave no gory details out."

"Ok. Well Jason was my lab partner in a experiment we were doing in there. This jerk came up to us and demanded our answers to the assignment. Jason said no."

"Oooo. A guy who stands up for himself, very nice. Please go on."

"After he said "no", the guy grabbed Jason and shoved him. I think he hit his head on a desk when he fell after tripping over a chair. At this point, the teacher finally noticed and was about to say something. But then Jason shot up in a flash. I couldn't even follow him with my eyes. And then he started to glow. He got a bulge in his chest and the chest spike ripped straight through his shirt. His whole body grew hair and changed shape. Most of his clothes were in pretty bad shape. Then a teacher came in and took him to the front office."

"Anything else." The host pushed when she fell silent.

"Not really. The class ended a few minutes later and we all went through the day like any other. I stopped by his house to give him his stuff that he left, but I have no clue if he's coming back to school or not."

"Well thanks a lot, ma'am. And thanks for calling us."

"No problem." And she hung up.

"I have never heard of such strangeness before. Let's hope this is a individual case and not some sickness." He laughed and I hit the off button. The guy was entertaining usually, but this morning he was just a jerk.

But Nicole. She was nice for telling my story in such a way that I seemed to be the victim. Others probably thought I was some sort of freak.

After sitting on my bed for awhile, I got up and started my morning routine. I put on a robe to give myself a medium of privacy, even with the protection of the fur.

After getting a shower, and taking almost twenty extra minutes to dry all my fur, I went down to the kitchen and found my mom making eggs and bacon.

"Oh, good morning. I would've made pancakes, but I was a little afraid that you might get syrup in your fur."

I forgot my laptop in my room and just nodded.

"Here you are." She heaped on about three eggs and a small hill of bacon. I licked my lips and dug in.

"Are you planning to go to school today? Or should I have your work brought home?"

I thought about it as I crunched on a piece of bacon. If I brought my schoolwork home, then I would avoid any awkwardness at school. At least for awhile. That was a temporary solution, only good for me to get used to the situation.

After swallowing, I held up one finger.

She saw and got a worried look, "are you sure? It wouldn't make anyone judge you any less for staying home a few days."

I shook my head, this had to be faced head on. Otherwise it would just haunt me.

My mom shrugged. "If you want to. But don't forget to bring your laptop."

I finished up and nodded.

After putting on some clothes that fit pretty well, considering the change, I grabbed my backpack and laptop. I didn't bother with shoes, my feet just didn't conform to the demands of normal shoes.

After bidding my mom a goodbye, I went to my vehicle and stopped in surprise.

I remembered about Lucario! The Lucario I hit! I had completely forgot about the poor pokemon. I alleviated my guilt slightly with the fact that my entire life was turned around. I could visit after school.

I arrived at the school about fifteen minutes before the bell, per usual. When I parked, I heard a tap on the window and jumped as I saw Connor outside my vehicle.

I unlocked it long enough for him to hop in the passenger side then re-lock the door.

"What are you doing here! There are reporters all over the place trying to find you."

I grabbed my trusty laptop. "I had to face this head on."

He nodded, "nice app. And I respect your way of thinking. But how are you going to avoid the reporters. And let alone any crazy trainers that may be around!"

I paused. The trainers I had not thought of. One bump with a pokeball would give any trainer the chance to catch me.

I shrugged. "I can probably fight my way out, if necessary."

Connor rolled his eyes. "You're crazy. But I'm going to try to help you out."

I heard the bell ring and I hopped out of the vehicle along with Connor.

As I made my way across the parking lot, I nearly caused three separate wrecks and two fender benders. I suppose the sight of a Lucario with a backpack and clothes on was too much for most to handle.

I was almost to the building when the reporters caught up to me.

One younger man jumped ahead of me and prevented me from getting into the building.

"Excuse me, are you Jason Simmons? The guy who allegedly turned into a Lucario?"

Allegedly! Before I could unleash my fury, via the computer, Connor stepped in.

"Yeah he is Jason. And yes, he did turn into a Lucario. Now get out of the way. We are trying to enter the school."

The man didn't seem deterred in the slightest.

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions? It will only take five minutes."

Connor stepped forward, forcing the guy to move or get shoved, "if we waste five minutes, we are going to be late to class."

"But-", his words were cut off as the door shut behind us.

"Thanks man." I said to Connor.

"No problem. Call me if anyone gives you a hard time."

I nodded and started to my first period, history. It went pretty normally. Second was pe.

Thankfully, the teacher didn't make me get dressed, instead I sat down on the bleachers until he called for roll.

After roll was called and we were all seated, he said what we would be playing.

"We will be playing dodge ball. Here's the teams." He called out the names for each of the teams and we all took our positions at opposite sides of the gym.

He rolled the balls out to the middle of the gym and blew the starting whistle.

I hung back as the jocks ran forward and were either gotten out or took out a few of the other side. Once that skirmish ended, I moved forward and grabbed a ball that had rolled at me.

While I wasn't the most skilled in sports, dodge ball was one game that I always seemed to do decent at. I could dodge easily, and could throw pretty well, but usually I wasn't a Lucario.

Time to see what I could do in this body.

Long story short, I got destroyed. I was so used to my normal body being able to weave at the last moment that my Lucario self didn't cut it.

My third and block periods were easy. With slight difficulty with writing and typing, I managed pretty well.

When I got to science, I learned that my long term tormentor, Thomas, had been expelled and arrested for underage drinking. While it wasn't what I expected him to be expelled over, I really didn't care. He was gone! A managed to thank Nicole for sticking up for me and she just nodded with a smile.

The rest of the day went about the same as any other, aside from in my seventh period class, algebra two.

As I sat down in my seat a girl who sat in the back, who I never really paid any attention to, came to me.

"Umm, your name is Jason, right?"

I nod, resisting the urge to sigh. I had to deal with people who were noticing me for the first time all day. And frankly, it was old.

She seemed embarrassed, but spoke anyways. "My friend wanted to know if you are able to speak using aura."

I shook my head.

She looked disappointed and said, "well, never mind." She went back to her own seat and didn't speak to me again." Apparently math is boring no matter what body your are in. It was mind numbing in any case. Though it was entertaining when he stuttered at a few word problems involving Lucario.

After what felt like hours of problems, I glanced at the clock and saw that it was two minutes to the bell.

I discreetly packed up my stuff and got ready to leave and when the bell rang, I booked it to the parking lot.

The moment I exited the building, I saw three different news vans. A quick glance to the left and right revealed four others in different places and one was even parked on the side of the road outside of school.

I cursed mentally as I tried to lower my head and not be too noticeable. Even forced my ears to lower on my head.

It didn't work. I was halfway across the parking lot when the first reporter reached me.

I didn't even stop to listen to the woman but instead sidestepped her and started jogging to my vehicle.

I made it to my vehicle before any other reporters could catch up with me. After blowing my horn and jerking my vehicle forward, they got out of the way and I got out of there. It wasn't until I got on the road connecting to the road to my house that I realized that I was being followed.

It was a pretty normal red truck, nothing was really odd about it.

To test my theory, I went down a dead end street and sure enough, the truck went into the street. And it followed me when I left the dead end street.

I had to shake this guy so I decided to go down a different street that ended in a left turn. The turn was completely blocked by trees on the side of the road so the truck wouldn't be able to see what I planned to do.

Once I turned the corner, I floored the gas and quickly took a right. After making a few more random turns, I got back home and saw that I had shook the truck.

As I got out of the vehicle, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and saw that Lilly had texted me.

"Lucario has disappeared! I don't know where he is and he shouldn't even be moving right know. Do you know where he is?"

I texted back. "I have no clue where Lucario is. I've had my own problems."

She sent back, "well I have a lost patient. I hope your problem is much worse!"

"I'm the guy who turned into the Lucario." I sent to her.

She sent back, "oh. Well I guess that is pretty important. I was wondering why you hadn't visited in awhile. How did it happen?"

I went inside and sat on the couch. "I have no clue. You ever hear of something like this?"

"I've heard of people with pokemon-like physical traits. But no. Never heard of someone turning into a pokemon. Sorry."

I heard my doorbell ring and I sent quickly, "that's alright. I have to go, someone at the door."

I pocketed my phone while opening the door. I opened the door to come face to face with a black suit. Or to be more precise, I came face to face with the chest of a very large man's black suit. He was at least a good foot taller than my six foot stature.

I took a step back from the guy because his very presence was so intimidating.

Then I heard his voice, it resembled rolling thunder.

"I assume that you are Jason Simmons?" I nod to the guy, unsure whether to stay or flee.

"I have been sent to ask you to come with me. I work for the WPO and we have a few questions for you." He got out a badge from his suit pocket and showed me it.

It seemed legitimate, but I've never actually seen a WPO badge before. The WPO are the World Protection Organization. Their job is to prevent terrorist attacks on civilian centers and to try to be the final voice of reason when a war is imminent. The fact that a WPO agent was on my doorstep, asking for me to come with him, was very bad.

I shook my head no. And typed, "my parents have no clue that you are here. And I'm not leaving without some major proof."

I saw the man grind his teeth in annoyance and I prepared to shoot an aura sphere.

Instead of attacking, he laughed. "You really are paranoid aren't you?"

I nod and he nods as well.

"Very well. What do you propose I do to prove that I am who I claim to be?"

I think for a moment, and then I remember something I heard from a friend at school.

"I heard that WPO agents are required to carry devices that allow them to contact nearby pokemon rangers. Is that true?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Have you met Mr Brown?"

I saw a glimmer of recognition in his eyes.

"Yes, I've met him. Do you want me to give him a call to verify who I am? Will that suffice?"

I nod and he grabs a cell phone out of his pocket. He hits a few buttons and waits, less than a minute later, a picture comes up on the screen.

"Hey Rain. What's up?" Apparently it was video chat instead of the call I was expecting.

"I'm with the Lucario that you met recently. The WPO asked me to come and get him. He's pretty paranoid and asked me to give you a call. Here he is."

He turns the screen to me and I see Mr Brown from the small screen.

"Oh, hey Jason. This guy is for real, he works for the WPO. I've worked with him before, he's trustworthy."

I typed, "thanks Mr Brown."

"No problem. Have him give me a call if there is anyone else you don't trust."

I nod to the phone and Mr Rain turned it back to himself.

"Thanks Brown. See you later." He ended the chat and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

I typed, "ok. Let me grab my laptop charger and I'll be ready to go. I can text my mom in the car."

"There's no need to bring the charger. Or the laptop."

I was confused, "but I can't speak without it."

"No problem. When we get to HQ, we have some technology that will take care of that."

I didn't really understand, but I shrugged and put the laptop down on the table.

After texting my mom, I followed Mr Rain outside.

His vehicle was a sleek black sports car that made me worry about drooling on the upholstery.

"Get in. And try not to drool on the seats."

I flinched and nodded. Was this guy a mind reader? Or did he actually have it happen to him before?

After getting in, I noticed that the guy didn't even bother to start the vehicle, he just hit a small button and sat back.

I waited for him to start the car. But he didn't. He just sat there.

I tapped the dashboard, and pointed at the wheel. Basically asking him, "what's the holdup?"

He looked at me and said, "just wait. They have to triangulate us first."

I wished I had my laptop with me, to ask why the heck we had to wait to be triangulated.

But less than ten seconds later, I saw a bright flash and felt the vehicle jerk forward.

I grabbed my armrests in shock and moments later, the flash faded and I saw the vehicle was in the middle of a large room.

"Let's get moving. We're late."

He got out of the vehicle nonchalantly and it took me a moment to unbuckle and get out.

I got out and looked around my new surroundings. I saw that the vehicle was parked neatly in the center of a large pad of concrete. The room appeared to have no defining details. It was the vehicle, the walls, the ceiling, and nothing else.

"Come on. You can sight see later."

Mr Rain was waiting by the only door in the room and was staring at me.

I quickly walked over to him and he led me through the door that opened to his approach.

Please leave a review, suggestions are welcome and appreciated. PM me if you have any questions that I may be able to answer about the story, if there is any confusion.


	6. Chapter 6

Curse of the Lucario chap 6

I own none of the credit for pokemon related items, people, creatures, or buildings. Just the story. Enjoy.

Chapter 6

Mr Rain led me through a hallway that had no doors, windows, or pictures. It was just boring wall.

Well after almost two minutes of walking, Mr Rain finally came to a door and opened it for me. I walked in but he stayed in the hallway.

"Go through the second doorway on the right." I nod and he closed the door.

This was getting more and more creepy. I went down the hallway and passed the first door. I ignored my curiosity to see what was behind door number one, and went to the second door. After knocking, and receiving no reply, I went in.

It was a room with a large round table with nine chairs around the table. All facing inward.

I came into the room hesitantly, not sure what I should do.

"Please sit." I jumped in the air as I noticed an older woman who was not there a minute ago.

She was wearing a blue business suit and a no nonsense expression.

I went to the table and sat in the chair closest to me. The woman sat in a chair three places to my right.

I sat awkwardly, not sure what to do, as the woman just stares at me.

"Probably wondering why you are here, right?" She suddenly speaks.

I nod.

"This is the WPO's headquarters. You have been here to be asked a few questions. We will expect a truthful answer, nothing less. Understood?"

I nod, irritated that I couldn't actually say what I wanted to say.

Without warning, I saw several other people suddenly appear from out of nowhere. As though they had been invisible. The hair at the back of my neck rose up from the surprise.

"You're late." I heard a voice from behind me and a man walked into view. He wore a white labcoat that led me to guess he was a scientist.

The woman who was sitting responded. "Out of my control. Did you bring the device?"

The man nodded and the three other people along with the man who spoke sat in the chairs across from me.

"Please put this on." The man slid some small Bluetooth looking device across the table.

I didn't pick it up. And stared at the guy.

He sighed and explained, "that is a device that picks up on the brains speaking section. It basically allows us to hear your thoughts. Please put it on so we can communicate."

I nod and slip the thing into my ear. A moment later, I felt my ear pop and heard, "dammit! That hurt!"

Then I realized I had actually heard that and said, "so this thing works? You can hear me?"

I directed the question to the woman and she nodded.

I smiled, probably resembling a little boy on his birthday, and said, "finally. You have no clue how exhausting it is typing everything you want to say."

"Yes, now can you answer a few questions?" The woman who sat in the middle of the other three people spoke up and grabbed a paper.

"As long as I have this thing, I'm happy to tell you everything." It was the truth, I would probably have given just about anything to keep the odd mind reading device.

"How did you turn into a pokemon?"

I shrug. "No clue."

Almost all of them seemed to frown.

"Do you know anything about how your condition came about? Have you been experimenting with drugs."

"No! I don't do that kind of crap!"

"Do you know of anyone else who has turned into a pokemon?"

"No. Are there others?"

"That is none of your concern. You just answer the questions." The woman snaps at me and I inadvertently say, "no need to get your skirt in a bunch."

And then I realized that my thoughts had been transmitted and I quickly say, "sorry! Didn't mean to say that!"

The woman looked positively furious, but the man burst into laughter.

"With that on, you have to watch what you think. Some people might get offended. Just a warning."

I glared at him. "Little late, wouldn't you say?"

Before the man could respond, the woman practically spit out, "you've wasted our time, money, and patience. Do you have anything useful for us?"

I knew I was on thin ice with this lady, any small annoyance could get me on her list.

So I took a moment, then thought, "well. The day before I transformed, I hit a Lucario. And had this very weird dream."

Their reaction was not what I expected. They all seemed to stiffen up and glance at each other worryingly.

Finally, after almost a full minute of silence, the man stood.

"Please tell us every detail that you remember about that dream. Leave nothing out."

I hesitated for a moment, and told them everything I could remember. I remembered it surprisingly well.

When I finished, the man quickly walked around the table and headed for the door.

"Come with me," He demanded.

"Wait. Where are you going?" The woman asks.

The man answers as he opens the door. "If this is what we are thinking it is, then we need to get some help. And hurry up kid."

Though the kid comment annoyed me, I got up and followed him.

He led me down several hallways at a steady jog pace.

"What in the world is going on?"

"I'll explain when we get to the lab. I need a sample of your blood and your cooperation."

"Fine. Whatever. But why was everyone freaking out back there. And speaking of everyone, who the HELL are you people!?"

He slowed to a walk. "I know this is very confusing for you, and I'm sorry for that. But what you have just told us, about your dream, may confirm a very bad situation that has been building for years."

"What? Like, a environmental problem? A economical problem? What?" I was tired of all of the tell-nothing crap.

"Here we are. Please sit on the table and let me grab a nettle."

"Fine, but once you get my blood, you explain everything. Deal?"

He hesitated, but nodded.

"If it's what I'm thinking, then yes, I'll tell you everything."

"Good."

He finally grabbed a nettle and moved some hair aside on my arm and took some blood.

After putting a small band aid on the spot he took the blood from, he quickly put some of the collected blood into a small machine that was across the room. He hit a few buttons and I heard the machine hum loudly.

"What is that thing?"

"It will separate the individual components of your blood."

"A centrifuge?" I suggest.

He glanced at me, surprised. "Yes. Didn't expect you to know what one was, so I simplified it."

I snort in amusement and he smiles.

The centrifuge beeped three times and the guy looked at the readings on the device.

"So?" I ask after he got a pained look on his face.

"It's what I feared. You have the potential to be one of the most powerful aura users in the last three centuries. And therein lies the problem."

"Why? Isn't it kind of good that I have a large amount of ability with aura?" Frankly, the news of being super powerful with aura had given me an excited feeling. Like when I drink way too much caffeine.

He grabbed my blood out of the machine and put it in a nearby refrigerator.

"The thing is, you're a possible threat."

This statement sent me reeling. "Me? A threat? How? I don't even know how to communicate using aura."

The guy sat down. "First off, my name is Jack. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier, we have a policy to not let our names be known to new people. And to answer your question, it started almost a year ago. You've heard of Team Styx?"

"Yeah. Vaguely. Didn't they sabotage some sort of government project about a year ago? Caused some sort of explosion."

Jack nodded. "Yes. Well we caught one of the people associated with Team Styx. We interrogated the person and found out that the organization's main objective is to destroy the standing government."

"So they're anarchists?"

"Precisely."

"So what does this Team Styx have to do with me?"

"From what the guy told us, apparently Team Styx has been trying for some years to harness the power of aura. They've kidnapped many Riolu and Lucario over the years in the attempt to figure out how to harness the power. Well, about a year ago, they made a breakthrough."

Jack stopped for a moment and I noticed he had a Bluetooth looking thing in his ear as well.

He put his finger on it and said, "yes, I know this is classified. But he's caught up in this and needs to know." The words on the other end were too faint to hear, even with my ears.

"Well I'm going to tell him." He took the Bluetooth out of his ear and put it on a desk.

"They are not going to be happy with you." I said with an amused look at the buzzing device.

He shrugged. "Nothing I can do about that. And where was I?"

"They made a breakthrough."

"Oh yeah. Well they figured out how to put all of the aura from a Lucario into a single device. With the right amount of aura stored, it becomes a very lethal weapon."

"What happens to the Lucario that is drained?"

"It dies." That little bombshell made me flinch and I kinda wanted to cry for the poor Lucarios that had been killed for such a horrible purpose.

"Well they can only put the power of a single Lucario in a, "battery", as we call the devices. They couldn't figure out how to hook up multiple Lucario to charge a single battery."

"So it is the individual Lucario's aura that determines the amount of power a bomb will have?"

"Yes, basically."

"But what does that have to do with me?" I asked, still wondering.

"Let me continue. The person told us that they had figured out a way to unleash the power of a mighty Lucario on the world. But the guy didn't know how they would achieve that goal. We assumed they had somehow bred a very powerful Lucario, but apparently not. Whatever they did, it created a way for a person to become a Lucario. And they would use the power of that Lucario to cause a massive explosion. He said that there was some sort of trigger that would cause the person who activated it to be consumed by some sort of ancient power. Apparently you triggered it."

His blunt way of putting it made me sit there for a moment, trying not to freak out.

"So. How much of an explosion would I cause?"

He took a moment to think about it.

"Enough to take out any national monument in the world. Easy."

My breath didn't seem to be able to come for a few moments.

"A monument? How is that even possible?"

I looked at my paws. Whatever energy I had inside of me, it was beyond dangerous.

"That's why we have a problem." The sour woman, who I insulted, appeared in the doorway.

"I really don't need you to be here right now. This is quite delicate." The man glared at her, but she paid no mind to him.

"Delicate? He's a potential bomb! I say we lock him up and throw away the key. End of problem."

"But we can't. People will not only get suspicious, it will also be wrong. He's technically done nothing wrong."

She scowled at me with real dislike. What made her hate me so?

"Fine. But I want him watched at all times. The moment he is even glanced at by someone suspicious, he will be taken into protective custody."

"Do I have any say in the matter? It's my life ya know?" I interrupted her tirade and she glared at me.

Jack quickly intervened. "I think it's best for your own safety, Jason. And he may be useful in drawing the Styx out."

"Oh hell no! I'm not being bait for some creeps who want to blow me up to destroy something! Count me out."

"Well it is an interesting idea, but full of risk as well." The woman completely ignored my outburst.

"What if he's captured? Then what?" She asks him.

"We could put a tracking device under his skin-"

"No! No! And hell fucking no! I won't allow anything under my skin!" I was getting more and more agitated due to this woman and her callousness to my situation.

"Can you please watch your language?" The lady tells me, like I was in first grade.

That's when I snapped.

"Well sorry, Ms Prissy! How about you turn into a fucking pokemon, and have people plan to use you as a bomb, and then you come and ask me to watch my fucking language!" All the pressure, all the weirdness, all the emotions I had kept bottled up, they came rushing out in a torrent of words. My mental voice somehow broke on the last word and a few tears leaked out of my eyes.

"Very well. You've had a hard time. I will admit that. But it is no time-"

I interrupt her, "I suggest you please leave. Before I say or do something that we both will regret."

The woman shut her mouth, thankfully, and walked away.

I then notice that I have a blue glow around me and that Jack is standing on the other side of the room. The place I was sitting on had a large intention that my weight was not causing.

Taking a deep breath, I let some of the emotion flow away. The glow faded, and I stood up.

"I think I should go home now. Please show me the door."

Jack nodded and walked out of the door. He led me to the hallway with Rain still standing in.

"Please get Jason home safely. He is allowed to keep the communication device. Return here when you are done."

"Understood." Rain accepted the orders and led me back to the vehicle. The weird flash happened again and we were in the exact spot we were at before. It was now dark and the only light I could see was from street lights and the vehicles headlights.

"Thanks for the ride." I got out and waved at him.

He grunted and kept his eyes pointed straight forward.

"A man of many words I see." Before he could respond, I closed the door and stepped back. Less than thirty seconds later, the vehicle just vanished. No bright light, no movement, nothing.

"Less impressive on this end." I sort of muttered.

Please leave a review, I've only gotten five and though they are really appreciated, I would like more opinions. They are the only rewards I get for this. And for those who actively watch for my every update, be prepared for the next within two days of this one.


	7. Chapter 7 Team Styx is on the move

Curse of the Lucario chap 7

Again, I don't own any of the pokemon related things in this story, just the actual story.

Enjoy.

Chapter 7

I went to my house and let myself in using the hidden key. It was about eight and I knew that my parents should have been home by then.

"Mom? Dad? Anybody home?" All the lights were off and I heard no response.

My neck hair rose and I felt worry creep up my spine.

I grabbed out my phone and punched in my mom's number and hit call.

She picked up. "Hello? Jason? Is that you?"

"Yeah mom. It's me. Where are you guys?"

"Oh. We went out to pick up some groceries after work and decided to eat while we were in town. And how are you talking? Did you already figure out how to use aura?"

"No ma'am. The WPO has this cool device that basically reads my mind and projects the words through its speakers."

"Oh cool. That's great! Now you won't have to haul around that laptop everywhere."

"Yup. I'm going to get some supper, see you when you get home."

"Ok. Bye." I hung up and flipped on some lights.

After fixing something to fill me up, I took care of some homework. As I was working on a particularly tricky problem, I noticed an odd sound. It was the bell I used to tell the pokemon that food was ready. It was ringing loudly.

I grabbed a flashlight and went out back. The ringing kept going and I saw that it was a miltank ringing it.

"What's wrong miltank?"

Miltank noticed me and stopped ringing the bell. He gestured for me to follow him and I did. Occasionally wild pokemon attacked the herd. Though the herd always defeat the offender, a few pokemon usually suffered injuries during such fights. The bell was a way of saying that a pokemon was injured or something was wrong.

Well the miltank hurried me along and led my to a area with a little group of mareep in a circle around something.

"Excuse me, please move." I moved through the group of mareep and suffered a few small unintentional shocks for my effort.

When I got to the center, I saw a pokemon that was definitely not a miltank or mareep.

It was Lucario. The same Lucario that I hit and who should be in the hospital. He was laying on the ground with bandages still on his chest and was unconscious. His leg was already mended, thanks to amazing medical equipment.

"Lucario? Why did you come here?" I knelt down and saw that he was not burned or anything, so the mareep hadn't shocked him unconscious. And his old injures were the only ones evident, so the miltank hadn't fought him.

I started to pick him up, to bring him to my house, when his eyes opened up.

"You're awake! How are you feeling?" I asked, worried.

"I'm fine. Where am I? And how are you speaking so oddly?"

He didn't recognize me. Not surprising.

"It's me, the guy who hit you on the road. You're in our field. Why did you come here?"

He blinked a few times and looked around at the pokemon staring at him.

"How? Why are you a Lucario?"

"I'm not really sure. But why did you come here? You should be in the hospital."

"I'm not sure why. I just felt a strong pull and a really strong need to follow the pull. I managed to get this far before I collapsed. And you appear to be the source of the pull."

I was curious, but put my questions to the back of my head.

"Ok. Well let's get you to my house. We can figure what that means later."

I gently picked Lucario up and the other pokemon moved out of my way as I carried him across the field and out of the gate.

I managed to get him situated on our couch and sat down in the kitchen to text Lilly.

"Hey. I found Lucario, he was laying unconscious in our field."

She responded a minute later. "How is he? Should I send an ambulance?"

"He's sleeping right now. He managed to tell me that he felt a kind of, "pull", and I was the source of the pull. He seems alright though."

"Fine, but I'm coming there myself. Where do you live? I'm about to go on break."

I told her my address and she promised to be there in about thirty minutes.

To pass the time, I made sure Lucario was comfortable. He stayed asleep the entire time.

Strange enough, I also spent some time trying to duplicate what I caused while at the WPO headquarters. I tried to make that blue glow appear around my body, but never could. I guessed it was linked to high levels of negative emotion.

After somewhere around thirty minutes, I saw a vehicle pull into our driveway.

I opened the door right as she got to it.

"Woah. So it is true." She stared at me with wide eyes.

"Yeah, now can you check on Lucario?" I was mega tired of the wide eyed look at that point.

She shook her head a little and nodded.

"He's over here." I led her into the living room and she immediately went to Lucario.

She inspected him with some devices she had brought along. He woke up about a minute in and she asked him questions.

"How are you feeling? Any pain?"

"A little," he admits. "But it's mostly just twinges and only when I overextend myself. My aura helps my bodies natural healing rate. That's why I'm almost better now."

She stopped her examination and stood up. "He appears to be almost healthy. He will need to rest for the next few days. Do you want me to give him a ride to the hospital."

I turned to Lucario. "You can stay here, if you wish. And if she says it's ok." I leaned my head at her and she nodded her consent.

Lucario thought about it for a moment. "You will not attempt to capture me?"

I laughed a little. "Lucario. We only have two pokeballs on this property. And they are both for in case our herd gets hurt bad. And anyways, I will probably get sucked up if I touch one. So you will not be in any danger in that regard."

"Then yes. I would like to stay. I would like to know why you transformed into a Lucario and why I feel such a strong pull from you."

"Good." Lilly says. "I need to be going. Call or text me if there is any problem, or if you ever figure out how you turned into a pokemon."

"Will do. Goodbye." I led her to the door and shut it behind her.

Once I did that, I went back to the living room and saw that Lucario was sitting up on the couch.

"Why is it that you wear those?" He suddenly asks.

"What? Clothes?" I was confused. It was like asking someone why they wore a watch.

"Yes. You are a pokemon. Why?"

I thought about it before answering. "It's kind of psychological. I've worn clothes my entire life. Wearing them provides a kind of connection to normalcy in a very odd situation."

Lucario didn't look very convinced, but nodded anyways.

Before wither of us could say more, the front door opened and my parents came in.

"Jason? You here?" My mom calls out.

"In here mom!" I answered.

She came in followed by my dad, at the sight of Lucario, they both froze.

I broke the silence. "Mom, Dad. Is it alright if Lucario stays with us for a little while? He's the one I hit a few days ago and he's still healing."

My mom smiled. "Of course he can stay. For however long he wants. Have you eaten dear?"

Lucario was surprised at my mom's hospitality. It comes with being southern, she is always taking in injured pokemon that she finds and nursing them back to health.

"I had some berries on my way over here, thank you."

My dad stepped forward and extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet you. And please, if you need anything, call one of us."

Lucario shook my father's hand and nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"No problem. It's getting a bit late. Jason, please go fix our guest his bed."

"Yes ma'am." I turned to head up to the guest bedroom when I heard Lucario say, "wait."

I turned to him. "Yes? Something wrong?"

"Well, I expected to just sleep on the couch." He seemed to have a hesitating tone to his voice, as though he wasn't sure if we were serious.

I waved my hand. "We have a guest bedroom for a reason. You are a guest."

He seemed to be confused, but didn't say anything.

I nodded, the conversation was over. I went upstairs and neatly made up the bed as quickly as possible.

When I came back downstairs, I saw my mom and Lucario laughing at something.

"Got the bed made, do you need a hand getting up the stairs?"

He shook his head and stood up. I saw he was a bit unsteady so I put my arm around him to steady him.

I saw he was about to say something and just said, "just let me give you a hand and don't complain."

He blinked, and nodded his thanks. I bore some of his weight as we went up the stairs.

I showed him the room and helped him to the bed, which he promptly collapsed on.

"Good thing it's a Friday. You can sleep in as long as you wish. Come get me if you need anything. And wake me up in the morning if I'm asleep and you are hungry."

He nodded, looking kind of uncomfortable at the attention. I took the hint and left with a, "goodnight."

"Goodnight. And thanks."

I nod and flip off the light. It's pretty late, so once I unclothed, I hit the sack.

My dreams were pretty weird. I had one that seemed to last awhile. It was where I was in a forest and my eyes were closed. But I could see. Everything seemed to buzz with a bluish color and I could move about without hitting anything. It felt like I had Zubat sonar in my brain.

Too soon, the dream ended, and I woke up to the sound of my alarm that I had forgotten to turn off.

"Stupid piece of crap," I mutter right before I hit the off button and floated down back into the sweet bliss of sleep.

I got about an hour's more worth of sleep before I heard a knock come from my door.

I managed to toss on a robe and shake off most of my sleep in the thirty seconds it took me to walk to my door from my bed.

It was Lucario.

"Good morning Lucario. How did you sleep?"

"Very well. Thanks. I believe your parents are still asleep."

I nod and smile. "Yeah. They really sleep in on weekends. I'm going to fix some breakfast, you hungry?"

He nods with a sheepish look.

"I'll go ahead and make them. You can watch tv or something. Just try to stay quiet."

I get him situated in the living room and I make some breakfast. As I'm doing so, I hear Lucario call me and I walk into the living room. He points at the tv and I see he's on a news channel.

It shows a building that's obviously destroyed and a news reporter was in front of it.

"The recent attack on the pokemon rescue center has shocked the entire region. The death toll has reached two hundred and there are still many people and pokemon unaccounted for. The people claiming responsibility for this attack call themselves Team Styx." I sucked in a breath as I realized what all this meant.

"We have not heard anything about suspects being captured but if you have any information regarding the people that caused this, please give authorities a call."

The story changed over to something else and Lucario flipped off the tv.

"Oh no. They're making their move." I say under my breath, scared.

"What do you mean? Have you met this, "Team Styx"?

I shake my head. "Not personally. But apparently they've been capturing Lucario and using their aura to power very destructive explosive devices. They are the reason I turned into a Lucario."

Lucario had a shocked look on his face and I explained everything that the WPO and Jack had told me. He stayed silent the entire time, tilting between anger, disgust, and confusion.

Once I was done, I got up and fixed breakfast. Letting him digest all the information.

Thanks everyone for your support. I've gotten over 150 views to The Curse of the Lucario. I consider that a nice milestone. Again, please leave a review. Always appreciated. And I will not make any more deadline promises like the last story, I was shaking my brain trying to make this one sound good. But I'll keep working.


	8. Chapter 8 Lucarios teachings

Curse of the Lucario chap 8

Insert legal words that indicate that I'm not claiming credit for pokemon related stuff here_. (Cause I'm too lazy for that.)

Enjoy.

Chapter 8

Once I was finished making breakfast, I heaped the eggs on two plates and brought them into the living room.

"Here. Be careful, they're hot."

Lucario broke out of the daze he had been in and took the plate with a nod.

We ate in relative silence. Using a little trick with metal claw to pick up the pieces without burning ourselves.

Once we were done, I put the plates in the sink and led Lucario outside. For some modesty, I had slipped on a pair of shorts but left myself shirtless.

"How are you feeling?" I noticed he seemed to be walking with a nearly unnoticeable limp.

"I'm fine. Legs are stinging a little. But I'll be fine. What do you normally do on weekends?"

I thought for a moment. "Well normally I go and hang out with my friends and throw a ball or something like that. But occasionally I like to go for walks in the woods. You want to do that?"

"Sure. Let's just keep a lookout for any trainers. We would be easy pickings with me injured and you not knowing how to fight."

"I know how to fight. I beat a trainer with only metal claw and aura sphere the other day." We entered the forest and went along a well cut path.

He seemed to think for a moment. "Ok. You can fight decently. But what happens when your enemy uses an attack like sandstorm? You will not be able to see through that."

"Then show me how to use aura. I need to be able to speak without having to use this device. And I wouldn't mind learning how to sense other people's aura either."

"I will try to teach you what I know, but this takes years to really master. You are not going to just "get" it in a few hours. Understood?"

"Sure. What do I do first?"

"What do you want to learn first?" He stops in the middle of the path and crosses his arms.

"What do you mean? Isn't it almost the same thing?"

He laughed and shook his head at my ignorance. "No. It's not even close. Speaking using aura is the ability to turn your inner thoughts and feelings into physical sounds that others can hear. Seeing aura is the ability to push your aura out of your body and try to force whatever you can see back into a clear picture in your mind. Both are difficult. Which one do you want to try first?"

Hmm. While speaking without the device was important to me, I knew that the ability to see things without needing my eyes would be a remarkable and useful skill.

"Let's try the aura sight first, please."

He nods and sits on the ground with his legs crossed. He gives me a look and I get on the ground in the same position.

"Using aura isn't like meditating, like others would have you think. You do not have to clear your mind for this particular ability."

I was tempted to ask which ability called for such a need, but didn't interrupt him.

"To begin, you need to close your eyes."

Once I had my eyes closed, he continued, "try to gather the aura at your disposal and push it out of your body. But don't condense the aura. That will only make an aura sphere."

I nod, put my hands on my legs and leaned forward. I tried to imagine the blue energy I had accidentally called forth before. After awhile, I felt something move. It was as though it was on the outside of my skin, but also connected. It felt surprisingly similar to when you move a statically charged blanket over your arm hair and moved the hair without touching it.

For some reason, I felt my dreadlock-like organs on the side of my head rise up to my left and right. Immediately, I felt a strange opening in front of me. It was as though a huge rift had opened in front of me. An abyss of extreme depth.

Confused and scared of the foreign feeling, I jerked my mind back and I gasped as I came back into my own head.

"What did you feel? You actually felt something?"

I took a moment to calm my frantic heart and answered, "I think so. I tried doing as you said. I felt this strange feeling of immensity. It felt as though a giant cliff had opened up in front of me. It shocked me, so I came back."

Lucario's wide eyes showed his surprise. "That is a problem most young Lucario have. What you felt was not an immense space in front of you. You were feeling the space in front of your face. This is due to the fact that you were only projecting a tiny bit of your aura. Because of this, you saw only the point of view of a very small creature. To achieve full, normal sight, you have to project the right amount of aura in such a way so you can see the world from your size."

I nod, processing the information. "Was that a decent try?"

He nodded, saying, "It's a little better than I expected. But I think that is due to your immense store of aura. Even with that much aura, it's still going to take you many months to learn how to fully control it so you can see while moving."

I hold back a sigh. This was important enough that I knew that I would keep at it, no matter what. And once I figured out how to see with aura, I could learn how to speak.

"But perhaps we should just enjoy the day? I know that trying too hard can cause headaches in novices. You should try it a little while before bed."

"I will," I promised.

We get up and walk some more down the path.

"Why exactly were you around here? I thought Lucario lived in the rocky mountains to the north."

He shrugged. "Not really sure. I just decided one day that I wanted to see the world. I had lived a very sheltered life as a Riolu and once I evolved, I left. I've been traveling for almost a year when I came around here. There are more trainers around here than anywhere else in the region that I've seen."

I nod. "Yeah. Trainers like to come around here to train and to use the ports to go to other regions. Much cheaper than air travel, and safer than traveling on the back of a bird pokemon."

He looked around anxiously while asking, "do you see many trainers around here specifically?"

"Not really. Only on rare occasions when one is either really lost, or visiting someone around here. We should be-"

"Hey look Granpa! Lucario!" I was cut off by the sound of a shrill girl's voice. I saw she was a little ways ahead of us on the path. She looked to only be about seven and was wearing all pink with the Vulpix pattern on her clothes.

"Very funny, Lindsey. I know there are no Lucario around here." An older man's voice, who seemed familiar, came from behind the girl.

"But I can see them. Right there!" She pointed her finger at us and developed a whiny tone that is usually associated with the young.

The man, who turned out to be my neighbor, came within view from around the turn and stopped with a shocked expression.

"Well I'll be. You weren't joking." Lindsey developed a wide smile that seemed to say, "see? I'm not always lying."

"Hey Mr Long. It's Jason. Your neighbor."

He seemed a little flustered and said, "Umm. Hello Jason. I suppose those rumors were true. Who is your friend? He isn't-"

"I'm a Lucario naturally. Pleasure to meet you." Lucario spared poor Mr Long and bowed.

"Nice to meet you. We were just taking a stroll through here trying to complete Lindsey's school assignment. She has to take a picture of at least ten pokemon that she is interacting with. Her parents had to work today, so they asked me to help her-", Lindsey interrupts him. "Granpa, can I take a picture with them? Would that count?"

He sent me a pleading look. "Do you mind? It would only take a second."

"I don't. How about you?," I ask Lucario and he nods.

"Sure. It would be no trouble. Where do you want to take it?"

He grabbed a camera out of his pocket. "Right here will be just fine, thank you. Lindsey, get over there with them."

She walked over to us, seeming pretty shy.

I get down on one knee and waved her over. "Don't worry. I may have sharp teeth, but I never bite."

She smiled and got right next to me. Lucario stayed standing, but smiled for the pictures.

Mr Long took about five or six and then said his farewell. Lindsey waved her goodbye until we got too far down the path to see her.

"They seemed nice," Lucario says after awhile of walking.

"Yeah. We used to talk a lot to Mr Long, but haven't in awhile. Didn't know he had grandchildren."

"I'm just glad it wasn't any trainers," he says and gives me an odd look when I groaned.

"Don't jinx us!" He laughed at my reaction and I saw a little pidgey glare at us from a tree it had been napping in.

We walked until I saw a marker indicating private property.

"We can't go over there. We might as well head back, my parents should be awake by now."

"Ok. Wait, what's that?" He pointed at a red light that seemed to get brighter and brighter. It was over in the area we were not allowed in and for good reason.

"Hyper beam! Run!", I screamed as I realized that it was the Aagron that roamed around this area a lot.

It was just in time too, for a moment later, the hyper beam slammed into the spot we were a second earlier. The shock wave alone nearly made me fall.

"Is it a trainer's pokemon?", Lucario asked after we hide behind some trees.

"No. It's wild. It's claimed that territory for a long time. But it's never bothered me before. We might want to leave as soon as possible."

"Oh but that would be no fun." I froze as I heard a voice from right above me and looked up.

It was that girl from my seventh period. The one who asked if I could speak using aura.

"How did-. Never mind. You might want to get down. There is an angry Aagron who is shooting hyper beams this way." Right as I finish saying that, the Aagron let off another attack at the tree I was hiding behind. The impact of the beam told me that the tree wouldn't take many more hits like that.

The girl didn't seem worried, "Don't worry. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He's just trying to scare you away."

The next attack that sheared off the limb right next to her head disproved that statement.

But instead of jumping down like someone intelligent, she stands up. Right in the Aagrons line of sight. "You better stop before I tell Dad that you've been attacking innocent Pokemon again."

"She's screwed", I thought. But, to my amazement, the Aagron actually started to walk away.

Once it seemed all clear, I got out from behind the tree.

"How did you do that?", I asked the girl.

"You're welcome. And its easy. He knows who's boss around here. The question is, why didn't you defend yourself?"

"I don't really like fighting that much. And anyways, I was too busy trying to get away."

"I'm too injured to fight, in my defense," Lucario says with a smile and joins us.

"Why are you in that tree anyways?", I asked her.

She shrugs. "I was just hanging out, chilling, when I heard Aagron and decided to see what was happening. What are you doing in the woods?"

"Walking. We were about to head back to my house when Aagron attacked."

"What's your name? We haven't met." Lucario bows to her and she smiles.

"Names Sarah. And you're Jason, right?"

"Yup. And thanks for the help, but we must be going."

"What's the rush? Got somewhere to be?" She joined us on the ground as we began our walk back.

"Not really. But my parents aught to be awake by now and they always want to know where I am. Especially in my current situation."

She nods. "I understand that. By the way, what happened to you?" She gave Lucarios bandages a look that seemed almost impressed.

"Got hit by a vehicle. I'm staying with Jason's family while I heal completely."

I was surprised at Lucarios truth. Or near truth. It wasn't a lie, but wasn't the entire story either.

"Ok. Just wondering."

I felt a buzz from my pocket and saw it was my dad texting me. I slowed down and let the two speak while I read the text.

"Where are you two?"

"Went out for a walk in the woods. I made breakfast for both of us."

"Why didn't you wake us up?"

"I know you like to sleep in on the weekends and there wasn't an emergency."

"Still, you should have left a note."

"Sorry. We are headed back anyways, should be home in about seven minutes."

"Okay."

I pocketed my phone right as the unexpected razor leaf hits me in my lower stomach.

"Nice hit bulbasoar! Now-"

"What the heck is wrong with you?" I yell mentally at the man who just ambushed us from the side of the path. I was on the ground wheezing from the lung crushing cheap shot.

"Couldn't you at least have shown yourself? That was a pathetic tactic to use on an enemy." I saw Lucario had gotten into a battle stance and Sarah had hopped back to dodge the attack.

"Well I heard that there was pretty weak pokemon around here and I wanted to train my bulbasoar some. But when I saw the two of you Lucario just strolling down the path, I thought, "hey. Maybe I should catch me one of them."

"Well guess what buddy, I'm not up for being caught. And you have exactly twenty five seconds to run before I get angry and attack. And trust me, you don't want to make me angry." I got off the ground and mimicked Lucarios stance, trying to be as intimidating as possible.

The man scoffed and stepped into the middle of the path. He was about my height and well built. His bulbasoar seemed pretty weak and I knew I could take it easily.

"Let me spare you the time. Use vine whip!"

I jump at the grass pokemon before it could send out the vines and used metal claw.

The impact of my claws sent the poor pokemon into the lower limbs of a nearby tree.

I turned to the trainer, now only two yards away. "I suggest you return your Pokemon to its pokeball, and leave."

He clenched his teeth and returned his pokemon. But instead of leaving, he pulled out another pokeball.

"You learn slow, don't you?" I say as he sent out a sandshrew.

"Use dig!" The trainer yelled and the little Pokemon shot into the ground.

I scoffed and jumped into a nearby tree. Problem solved.

Sandshrew jumped out of the ground and shot at me. I tensed my muscles and used extremespeed.

It felt as though I had a variety of places to appear in and I just chose a spot under the sandshrew. Once I appeared behind it, I pummeled it with several punches and slammed it into the ground. I took a moment to note the telltale swirls of a knocked out Pokemon before I stood up and started to walk to the trainer.

"Send out another. I dare you." I made sure to put as much threat into my tone as possible. And for good measure, I made a aura sphere appear in my right palm, making the threat too obvious to miss.

Finally, the guy returned his Pokemon and ran full speed the opposite way down the path.

"That was impressive. Didn't even get a scratch," Sarah says as she walked up to where I had stopped.

"It was ok. Could have finished the battle quicker if you had used aura sphere on the sandshrew as it came out of the pokeball."

I waved away both of their comments. "Whatever. Sorry Sarah, but we have to be running. I told my parents that we would be home in about seven minutes." The battle had taken up those seven minutes and we had to really pick up the pace.

"Ok, see you later." She heads in the other direction as we start jogging back.

We made it back right as my dad came out of the back door. He smiled and I groaned. I knew that expression well.

"Got here just in time. We have work to do."

"But dad," I whined, "Lucarios still mending and I'm still-"

"You look like you've gotten used to your new body. And Lucario doesn't have to work, unless you want to help?"

"I can lend a hand. Where do we start?" Lucario seemed eager to work, and I just groaned.

"Rule number one around here, never volunteer for work. It will never end."

Lucario looked at me and then seemed to reconsider when he saw my dad bring up a wheelbarrow and two shovels.

I saw his expression and said, "too late to escape now."

Please leave a review for this. I love hearing people's opinions on my work and I get so few of them. Constructive criticism is also welcome. Also, I have something I want to try. Please Pm me an OC of any characters that you want me to put into the story. Include gender, name, Pokemon partner (if any), any dark secrets that may influence the character, the role of the character and whatever you deem necessary to the construction of that character. Also include any Pokemon you may want to see in the story, just for the fun of it.

Ok, I'm done.


	9. Chapter 9 Yardwork and ancient journals

Curse of the Lucario chap 9

Disclaimer: still don't own Pokemon. Probably never will. And on to the fanfic.

Enjoy

Chapter 9

My dad tried to have me and Lucario spray the tall grass with some repel he had bought, but neither of us could stand to be near the stuff. It was almost like something in my head screamed, "back off!" I then understood why Zubat hated trainers who used repels so much. For a Pokemon with only sonic waves to see by, the brain piercing repel must be agony.

So my dad had the fun task of spraying the grass, to make sure no Pokemon hid in it, and then cutting it. We gathered it all up and took it to our designated burn hole. Lucario showed me another cool trick with metal claw to help with fires. All we had to do was extend the claws out and then rub them down the opposite hands claws. This created a shower of sparks that made the dry grass catch almost immediately.

We spent almost two hours doing that before my dad called for a break. We sat on the back porch and my mom poured us some lemonade..

After Lucario sits down with a wince, my mom asks him, "How are you feeling?"

We waved away her concerns. "Just a little tired. This lemonade will have me back on my feet in no time."

She smiled, but before she could say anything else, the doorbell rang.

"I'll go get it," I volunteer and hop on up.

I checked through the blinds near the door, to see if it was someone I knew, and was shocked when I saw eyes peering back at me from the other side.

I recoiled and let out a silent curse. I went to the door and opened it carefully, saying, "hello?"

I saw a Dragonite stand fully upright and extend its hand with a letter encased in it.

"Is that for me?" I was surprised. Nowadays people used electronics to send messages. I hadn't gotten an actual letter in years, not counting junk mail. And never an actual Dragonite delivered message.

The Dragonite nodded his head and extended the letter a little further. I grabbed it and opened it. While normal mail dictated that you just take your mail and do whatever you want with it, Dragonite delivered mail demanded it be opened in front of the delivering Pokemon.

I took the only piece of paper out of the sealed envelope and saw it was folded in half with some words on the outside of it.

"For the eyes on Jason Simmons. Only."

While this was odd, I went ahead and opened the letter and begun reading.

"Greetings Mr Simmons. I regret to say that I couldn't visit you in person, due to my less than perfect health, but I wish to speak with you. I have sent this Dragonite to you in this manner so that you may come to me, if you so choose. The reason I wish for you to visit me is due to the fact that I have spent my life studying the achievements and life of the famous Sir Aaron. And in my studies, I found something pertaining to your current situation. This information is too valuable to be left in the care of untrustworthy technology and be seen by the wrong people. If you allow the Dragonite to fly you to my home, I guarantee your safety during the flight and while at my estate. And that you will be safely returned upon your request.

Signed, Mr Ignacious."

I took the time to read it twice and put the paper down.

"I'm going to have to speak with my parents about this, please, come in and have a seat."

The Dragonite nodded and took a seat on the couch that sagged slightly at his weight.

I went to the back porch and held up the letter. "I've been invited by a man called Mr Ignacious to come to his estate. He says that he has an idea about me turning into a Lucario. Should I go?"

Both my parents blinked in surprise. I had laid some pretty surprising news on them, completely out of the blue.

My dad spoke first, "I think it would be a good idea. We haven't been able to get any real results on the reason for your change. This might help us reverse it. What do you think honey?"

I saw my mom chew her lip, a obvious sign of her worry. "I don't know. How do we even know if this guy is telling the truth. For all we know, he could just be a very rich person who wants to see a person who's turned into a Lucario."

"He's not. I've met him." Lucario spoke up and we all stared at him, silently waiting for his explanation.

"He actually owns the mountainous area that I come from. His family has lived in those mountains for the last three centuries, protecting the area. When I was a young Riolu, I got lost and stumbled upon the Ignacious mansion. It was late, so the family let me sleep there for the night. And when morning came, they led me back to where my family lived."

I thought about it, and declared, "any family who has been protecting Pokemon like Lucario can't be all bad. I think I should go. And Lucario should go with me."

I received a shocked look from Lucario that was quickly replaced with a grin.

"Do you mean it?", He asks.

"Of course," I scoffed, "you haven't seen your family in awhile. I'm not about to go to your families area without dragging you along."

My mom clapped her hands together. "Then it's decided. You two will go to this man's house. Just make sure you take care of yourself. And tell one of us if you have to stay a long time or if something happens."

I hugged her, being careful with my chest spike. "Don't worry. We can take care of ourselves. And I'll make sure to text you and keep you updated."

After getting a few more over-protective-parent promises made, me and Lucario went into the living room where Dragonite was looking at a little magazine that was laying around.

"Do you think you could carry both Lucario and me? Or would that be too much weight for you?"

The dragon Pokemon shot me a annoyed look and nodded.

"Then we can go. Are you ready to fly again?"

Dragonite hopped up and went out the front door.

Lucario looked at me and said, "I believe that would be a affirmative."

I snort and follow Lucario outside.

"How are we going to both fit on your back? I think we may be a little too big for that."

While one of us would have easily fit on his back, two was out of the question.

Dragonite came over to us and motioned for Lucario to get on his back. Lucario did, and when he was situated, Dragonite scooped me up in his arms like a baby and took off.

I held in the flood of protest due to the fact that we were already at a height that would be lethal if I fell. Instead, I held on to one of his arms and prayed that Dragonite didn't forget I was there.

We flew for about an hour at great speeds until I felt Dragonite starting to slow down and lose altitude.

"We are here!", I heard Lucario yell above the wind and had to hold back a cheer of delight.

I managed to turn my body in such a way so I could see the ground out of the corner of my eye.

It was beautiful. The mountain range was any realist painters dream. The trees that covered the mountains completely concealed the ground in most places and I only saw a few clearings from where I was looking. The mountains had a humid feel to them and I could see a large area completely covered in mist.

"Those are the natural hot springs! My family lives near them!"

I nodded my reply. While I could have responded, I didn't want to scream right in Dragonite's face.

Dragonite slowed down to almost a complete halt and started to descend the last bit to the ground.

Once we landed, Dragonite set me down on my feet gently and I stretched while popping almost every joint possible and groaning in pleasure.

Lucario hopped off of Dragonite's back and stretched as well. We had landed on a large concrete pad that was surrounded by a magnificent garden. It had a little brick path that connected to the house. Or perhaps I should call it by its real term.

It was a bona fide mansion! I had never seen one as large as the gargantuan structure that was about fifty yards away from us. I looked around and saw that there was a swimming pool (that could probably fit my entire house into its depths) just a little ways away. I couldn't tell much else from where I was due to the well trimmed foliage covering most of the property.

"Thanks for the ride Dragonite. It was really interesting." I made sure to compliment him as nicely as possible and Lucario copied me.

"You must be master Simmons. Am I correct?" I heard a voice behind me and I turned to see a younger guy, just a few years older than me, standing at the edge of the pad. He wore a well tailored suit that made him seem like a butler.

"Um. Yes sir. I'm Jason. This is my friend, Lucario. You are not Mr Ignacious, are you?"

The guy chuckled. "No. I am Mr Ignacious' handyman. It is similar to a butler, but much better. The name is John, pleasure to meet you."

I nod and ask, "where will we meet Mr Ignacious?"

"He should be in his study. That's where he is, most of the time. Please follow me. And Dragonite, go ahead and get some rest."

Dragonite nodded and flew off to the other side of the property while John led us down the brick path.

"Enjoying the view?", John asks with a smile on his face. I had been looking around like a inquisitive HootHoot, constantly moving my head to see all the sights.

"It's amazing! How do you keep it like this?"

"Mr Ignacious has about twenty staff members that work on the grounds and on other things. It takes a lot of work, but we all keep this place nice and pretty. Though only me and Mr Ignacious are here at the time. The staff gets weekend's off."

"It wasn't this lush when I was here last. Less flowers," Lucario comments.

"You've been here before?", John asks.

"A long time ago, when I was still a Riolu. I'm originally from around here, but left after I evolved."

"Oh," John nods his understanding. "Well perhaps you can visit your relatives while you are here."

"I hope so," Lucario says with a longing look in his eye.

John led us to a side door and through a hallway into the main front room. It had the huge stairs with the entry to another room in the middle and everything! The room had floor to ceiling windows that seemed like they belonged in a cathedral. The internal decor would have probably made my mom drool if she was there.

I snapped out of my daze to hear John speak, "Mr Ignacious should be up there. Second door on the left. Please knock before entering."

John said this like he rehearsed it and walked away.

I looked at Lucario and he just shrugged. I rolled my eyes and led the way up the stairs.

We went down the hallway until we reached the second door to our left and I knocked on it three times.

"Who is it?"

"It's Jason Simmons and one of my friends, sir. You invited me to your estate."

"Ah yes. Please come in."

I opened the door and saw that it was a library, a living quarters, and a study room all in one.

"Please close the door behind you, and come have a seat."

I saw the voice came from a very old gentleman who was sitting behind the only desk in the room. After letting Lucario come in, I closed the door and we approached the man.

I saw the man grin from ear to ear in an obviously joyful display of emotion that would have fit better on a child.

We sat and the man spoke, "I'm so glad you came. I've been wanting to meet you ever since I heard about what happened."

"Thank you, but you said you might know how this happened. Can you please share that with us?" Lucario seemed as eager for answers as I was and I could tell from his slightly twitching ears.

Mr Ignacious seemed to notice Lucario for the first time. "You didn't turn into a Lucario as well, did you?"

"No sir. I'm actually from these mountains. I was recently hit by a vehicle and I am staying with Jason's family while I recover. He invited me along because I've met your family before."

Mr Ignacious' face scrunched up in confusion. "Have we met? I honestly do not remember."

Lucario smiled. "That's because it was when I was a Riolu. I got lost and your family led me back to where I lived."

I saw recognition in his eyes. "I remember you now. I remember it was my brother who led you to your family. I was bedridden at the time with the flu so I never really met you."

Lucario nodded. "I remember hearing about someone being sick. Your brother said that you would be so jealous that he got to visit a Lucario camp."

I was confused and said, "I thought the entire area was Lucario territory?"

Lucario shook his head. "While many Lucario live around here, there are certain areas that outside Pokemon are rarely allowed in to. Humans are even more rarely allowed into an actual Lucario camp."

I saw Mr Ignacious shake his head with a faraway look to his eye. "I remember when I first tried to go to a Lucario camp." He snorted at the memory and continued, "I didn't even breach the outside of the perimeter before two Lucario found me and "redirected" me."

He put emphasis on the word redirected and I figured that there had been physical force involved.

"Well enough of that," Mr Ignacious stood up, "you came for answers. And you will get them."

We stood and followed him as he led us through a side door and into a smaller room.

"This is where I've collected every scrap of information on Sir Aaron that I have been able to get my hands on. It was in this book," he held up a large volume with fancy print on the outside, "that I found something pertaining to your current situation."

He set the book down on a desk and began to flip through it, looking for something. As he did that, I looked around the room. The room had several different paintings and sculptures of Sir Aaron in different poses and places. The only one I actually recognized was a famous one that had been drawn by a man who knew Sir Aaron well. It displayed Aaron extending his famous staff toward the sky and making aura flare from the crystal that was at the end.

I shivered when I realized that the man I saw in the picture and the staff he held was the exact likeness to the one I saw in my dream. I remembered a small scar that I had seen on the Aaron in my dream and I noticed a scar on the left wrist of the Aaron in the picture. A detail I would never had noticed otherwise.

"Here it is! Take a look." He turned the book in our direction and we took a look.

I saw a picture of a human outline that was surrounded by a bright glow. Next to the picture was a outline of a Lucario that had a much brighter glow around it.

The section underneath read, "long ago, even before the time of the famous Sir Aaron, man drove to perfect the power of aura. According to ancient scripts, it was said that man had learned how to change a human into a Pokemon using a strange technique with aura. When this power was found, many leaders desired it for it gave the user much power. Because the makers of this power did not want to cause conflict in the land, they destroyed all evidence of the power. Thus the way of changing man into Pokemon was lost. But Sir Aaron, a master of the ways of aura and a guardian of aura, supposedly found a way to use this power. He claimed in one of his later journals that he had found a magnificent gift. But a gift that could only be given once, and only at a certain time. He said that he had wanted to walk in the footsteps of a Pokemon, but someone else would have to do it for him. It was never discovered what he meant by this strange declaration, but it still confuses historians today."

"He mentioned a gift," I muttered out loud.

"Who? What do you mean?" Mr Ignacious seemed to be almost desperate for my answer.

We relocated back into the study and I told him about my dream.

He sat back in his chair when I finished and stayed silent for awhile.

"Does anything you have mention anything about reversing the process?"

"Why would you want to reverse it? What you have is an amazing gift."

I sat there, frozen in shock at his question. "While I admit it is cool to be a Pokemon, I-"

I stop mid-sentence. Why do I want to be human? I feel no different in this body. I have the potential for amazing abilities in this body. And because humans and Pokemon are considered equal, I could get an education. I could live my life like a human. Heck, whenever the hype about me dies down, I could even go out into other public places aside from school. I could speak with the device until I learned how to use aura to communicate. Frankly, there was only one thing that prevented all of this from being taken seriously.

The only thing that screwed up all this logic was Team Styx. As long as I was a Lucario, they would be after my power. And they wouldn't stop. Not until they were completely wiped out.

Or I am dead.

Please review this and tell me your opinion on how it is going. Sorry for taking a little longer to post this than my previous chapters, I had a lazy day and did absolutely nothing. (It was a good day! :D)

And please PM me an OC if you think up any sort of character you wish to see. Include gender, name, Pokemon partner (if any), any dark secrets that may influence the character, and whatever you deem necessary to the construction of that character. Also include any Pokemon you may want to see in the story, just for the fun of it. (Warning, I will not include any gen 5 or 6 Pokemon due to the fact I know very few of them.)

And check out Gameplaya02. He has a story called Computer Code that I think any Pokemon fan would enjoy. He also enjoys reviews as well.

And last. This is kind of a personal favor but I'm going to post it anyways. If anyone knows Greg the Lucario in real life, I need to give him my thanks. He is the one who inspired me to actually attempt writing something on here. Please PM me if you do know him in real life.


	10. Chapter 10 Lucario's village and Shade

Curse of the Lucario chap 10

Disclaimer: still don't own Pokemon.

And sorry for taking so long with this chapter, I've just been really busy with everyday life. But I think you'll all like this chapter. Also, finally got an OC from a reader, I will be bringing him into being in this chapter. And I assure you, he's gonna be interesting. And enough of my blathering, on to the good stuff.

* * *

Chapter 10

"-I just. I don't know. Being a Pokemon has been an amazing experience, Mr Ignacious. But I don't really know what I would really be able to do with my life. And people will be after me, trying to find out how I transformed into a Pokemon."

I couldn't tell him about Team Styx because Jack asked me not to tell anyone who was unrelated to it. Mr Ignacious fell under that category.

There was silence as Mr Ignacious pondered my words for a little while.

As we sat there, I heard the sound of a helicopter appear. I ignored it, but Mr Ignacious seemed to sit up in his seat.

"Expecting anyone?", I ask him as he looks out a nearby window.

"No, I wasn't. Though it's probably my daughter and granddaughter. They often like to visit without calling."

The sounds of the helicopter got louder and I saw Mr Ignacious nod. "That's her. I can see her through the glass." He smiled and stood up.

"I am sorry for her intrusion. Do you mind following me downstairs to meet her?"

"It's no problem. Lead the way." I stand up and open the door for him.

We follow him downstairs and we arrived at the door right as the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," I said and I opened the door.

As I opened it, I was slammed back onto my butt as a large weight came through and landed on me.

"Grrr!" I froze and held still when I realized I has a Ninetails on my chest with its mouth only inches from my throat.

"Lucy! That's no way to treat one of grandpa's guests. Return." I saw the Ninetails disappear in a flash of red light and saw a girl my age holding a pokeball and standing by a woman. They both had long blonde hair that curled at the end and they both had a similar face. The woman seemed to be staring at me with an odd look, but the girl just shook her head at the pokeball.

"Sorry about that, Lucario. Lucy gets excited sometimes." The girl put away the pokeball and held out a hand to help me up.

I smiled and accepted her help.

"It's alright. My neighbor had a Growlithe that was over-excited as well."

She smiled and laughed. Her long blonde hair bounced to her laughter and I had the oddest urge to check my fur.

"So sorry about that. My name's Hannah." She extended her hand and I shook it while saying, "names Jason. Nice to meet you."

I felt Hannah tense up and saw both her and her mom acquire expressions of surprise.

"You are the guy who turned into the Lucario? That explains the odd way of talking," Hannah says while releasing my hand.

"Hannah! That was rude," the woman scolded Hannah and turned to me. "My name is Liz. Pleasure to meet you."

We got over the pleasantries and I introduced Lucario, we got the reason for him being covered in bandages out of the way quickly. I went ahead and explained how my communication device allowed me to speak until I learned how to speak via aura as well.

Once all this was done, John came and herded us all into the living room for some tea he had prepared.

While sipping some tea in a glass not very suited for Lucarios, we waited for Ms Liz and Hannah to absorb all the information.

After awhile, Mr Ignacious said, "how about you two go ahead and visit with Lucario's family? You can visit your family while they visit me. Is that ok?"

I turned to Lucario. "How about it? Ready to go see your family?"

Lucario nodded vigorously. "Very much so."

Mr Ignacious had John bring us to the front gate and opened it while saying, "when you get back here, just hit that button and you will hear my voice. Just tell me it's you guys and I'll let you right in."

I nod, "got it."

John nodded and let us through the gate. Once we were on the other side and a few yards into the forest, I saw Lucario seem to relax his entire body. He knew he was home.

"Which way is those hot springs?" I looked around but couldn't tell anything due to the dense foliage surrounding us. Frankly, the only reason I knew where the mansion was is due to the fact I could barely see the wall we had just left.

"It's that way," he points in a direction a little to our right and begins to walk. He led us quickly to a little path and I followed behind him.

"How can you tell with all this foliage? I can barely see twenty feet ahead of us." It was true. The bushes and trees that surrounded us made it so that an Steelix could have hidden in them and stayed unnoticed.

He paused and thought about it. "It's hard to explain, but I'll try. Each camp has a certain, "frequency", that it gives out. Any aura user can read that frequency and determine which camp is theirs. I can feel my camps aura in that direction."

"Will they know we are coming? I wouldn't want to scare a Lucario and have it attack us."

"They probably already know we are coming. And if they don't, they will soon. Look," he pointed up ahead at a area where the trees and bushes thinned slightly.

He led us forward and we arrived in a clearing that was devoid of all vegetation aside from the grass. The terrain made this area like a small canyon so that the only way to easily get passed it would be to go through there. In the clearing stood three Lucario who all turned towards us when we entered the clearing. Two were guys and one was a girl.

Since I was behind Lucario, it was apparent that the angry expressions that appeared on their faces were because of me.

"Who are you? And why does one of our own wear clothing?" The girl in the middle of the other two asked this as the other two started to move to our left and right.

"It's me Pip. There's no need to be so hostile to an old friend."

At Lucario's voice, I saw all three lose their angry expressions and acquire confused looks.

"Narri? Is that you?" She stepped closer and squinted at Lucario. Or Narri, apparently.

"In the fur. How's it been? I see you finally evolved from Riolu."

The female Lucario, Pip, smiled and shouted, "Narri! It is you! Come here you idiot!" She practically tackled him and gave him a hug, being careful of the spikes on their chests, while the other two also moved to him and began pat him on the back.

"How's it been?"

"What's up with those bandages? You try to climb another cliff?"

The three others seemed to forget about me and I backed away a few steps to let them get reacquainted. After a few minutes of happy story swapping, Narri finally introduced me.

"Guys. This is my friend, Jason." When they turned their attention to me, they all got their angry expressions again.

"And the reason he is wearing those is because he is not a Lucario. He's actually a human who has been turned into a Lucario."

I saw all three of them get the usual confused looks that I has gotten used to.

I decided it was time for me to speak. "I came here when I was invited by Mr Ignacious. He said he knew what caused me to turn into a Lucario. Narri came with me and he wanted to visit you guys."

"Yes yes," one of the male Lucario waved his hand, probably not caring about why I was there, "but why do you bother wearing clothes? And what is wrong with your voice?"

That odd question again about my clothes.

"Well to answer the voice question, I can only speak using this device," I tapped the communicator in my ear.

"And I wear clothes because it is just something that keeps me attached to the normal world. Is it really such a big deal?"

The others stared accusingly at Narri, who seemed strangely embarrassed. He stepped forward with his palms upward in a pleading gesture, "The thing is, Lucario consider a Pokemon wearing clothes is like shouting out to the world that you have been tamed. It's almost shameful."

"And there is no way we are letting him in while he's like that," Pip says while crossing her arms.

I thought about arguing my case more, but I decided it would be futile.

"Fine. Have it your way." I imagined I was wearing a costume and slipped my pants off along with my underwear. Since everything was covered anyways, I felt only slight embarrassment.

I hung my clothes on a nearby tree and stood with my arms crossed.

"Fine. Can I meet your family already?"

Pip nodded. "Fine. But please, make sure you take those back when you leave. Follow me," she waved for us to follow her and she led us through the trees on a well trodden path.

As we walked, I leaned close to Narri and said, "you never told me your name was Narri."

He shrugged. "Sorry. I just prefer to be called Lucario by other people who I do not really know. And no one ever asks."

I felt guilty and said, "sorry I never did."

"It's no problem. Just make sure you ask someone's name, and do not just call them Lucario. And try not to embarrass me, or yourself."

I grew panicked and hissed, "Why didn't you tell me I might embarrass myself? Is there anything big that I should know about?"

Narri tilted his head slightly and thought. Then said, "well perhaps you shouldn't make the fact you are human so openly known. Some do not exactly care for humans because they sometimes come here to capture us."

I face palmed. "If I speak, that will give me away. How am I supposed to explain why I do not talk like a normal Lucario?"

He winced and seemed to think furiously. After a minute, his head came up and I saw he had an idea.

"We can say you've lived with humans your entire life and never learned how to really use your aura. It's happened before. And while some will be curious, just make up something-"

"We're here. Welcome home, Narri," Pip says before Narri could finish and I noticed that I could hear some noise from ahead.

Narri walked a little faster and I let him take the lead while I followed behind and tried to calm myself.

Before I could enter the village, Pip grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear, "just make sure you don't offend anyone. Or I'll get in trouble for letting you in."

"No problem. Going to try to avoid that as much as possible."

She snorted at my response and let me go.

I caught up to Narri, who had stopped, and stood there next to him. The whole village was pretty simple. The houses were sometimes made of wood, sometimes stone. But every house seemed well built and had little touches added to them. Kind of like regular human homes. I saw that the village seemed to be the size of a small town. There were Lucario all over the place, doing different things. Some worked, some were talking, and some were just walking. All normal things that people do every day. Rather boring from my point of view. But it was Narri's home, and I would not insult it.

I also saw five Riolu running amok. They seemed to be playing some version of tag and was having a lot of fun.

"What do you think?", Narri asks.

"It's very cool. I never knew there would be so many in one place."

He seemed to glow with pride. "Glad you like it. Let's go and see if my parents are here right now."

He started walking and I kept up with him while taking in as much detail as possible.

A Lucario or Riolu would occasionally call out a greeting and Narri would respond, but he didn't stop.

I got a few odd looks that made me uncomfortable, but considering the odd looks I had been getting around that time, they didn't affect me too much. The little Riolu that ran around begged us to play, but Narri said we couldn't right then. It made me sad to say no to them, but they ran off and continued what they were doing and I pushed away the feeling.

We traveled almost all the way through the village before Narri stopped in front of a particular stone house.

"This is it. Let's see if they are in." He walked into the house without knocking and I waited a moment before following.

Narri stopped in the middle of the first room we came to and looked around.

"They are not here. I can't hear anybody."

"Where are they when they usually aren't home?", I asked.

He immediately turned around and I had to hop out of his way to avoid being run over.

"The springs! My father always loves to go to the springs," he says all this while running quickly in what I assumed was the direction of the springs.

I closed the door and ran as fast as I could to catch up with him.

We ran through the village, dodging Pokemon left and right, as he led the way. He ran past one corner and when I attempted to follow him, a Lucario stepped out from behind the corner.

I was going too fast and the Lucario was staring at Narri, so impact was imminent if I continued like I was.

"'Scuse me," I said as I used my legs to launch myself into the air at the last second. With my knees against my chest, I literally brushed the Lucario's hair with my tail as I went over him and landed on the other side.

I shouted over my shoulder, "sorry about that!", and kept running.

Either the Lucario was too shocked to respond, or was used to it, because I didn't hear any response as I ran even faster to catch up with Narri.

I saw a lot of steam in the air in the direction that Lucario was headed to and saw that the village was right on the edge of the natural hot springs.

Once we were closer to the hot springs, Narri slowed down to a walk and allowed me to catch up. To my shame I was breathing slightly hard while Narri didn't even seem to register the quarter mile sprint he just did.

I saw that the hot springs were several very large pools of almost boiling water that a lot of older Lucario were currently enjoying nearby.

"Do you see them?", I asked Narri and he shook his head.

"No- wait! Over there!" He pointed at a pool that was a lot smaller than the others, but big enough to fit many people (or Pokemon) comfortably. I saw that a full grown male and a female of the same age were enjoying the waters.

I saw Narri seem to hesitate and I nudged him. "What's wrong? Go and talk to them. Aren't they going to be happy to see you?"

He nodded, seeming uncertain for some reason, and made his way over to the separate pool.

I followed a little ways behind, but easily within hearing distance.

Since the two Lucarios backs were turned to Narri, he had to come up behind them and said, "hey Mom. Hey Dad."

The two Lucario jumped and turned around. For a heart stopping moment, I thought they didn't know who Narri was. But then I saw them smile and the female said, "Narri! Come here, it's been far too long since you visited."

Narri smiled and joined them in the spring.

After exchanging a few words, he waved at me to come over and his parents noticed me.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," I say as politely as possible to try to get on their good sides.

"Nice to meet you," Narri's father says and nods at me with a small smile.

"Please, join us in the spring. It's very relaxing," Narri's mom says while lowering herself into the water so only her head was above the water.

I go to the side of the pool and carefully lower myself into the near boiling waters. At first, the waters were almost painful, and I nearly got out. But my body got used to the temperature and it quickly became very relaxing.

"Ahh," I say contentedly. I had never felt so relaxed before after only a single minute submerged in the water.

"Now you know why my dad comes here so often," Narri says while grinning at my reaction.

I nodded slowly and said, "I think I might move here if I could relax like this every day."

Narri's mom snorted with amusement and glanced at Narri's father with a pointed look.

He rolled his eyes and that made Narri snort, which earned him a glare from his dad.

"So," Narri's father started, "what happened to you? You try to climb another cliff?"

Before Narri could respond, I asked, "what do you mean by that? I heard someone ask that exact same question earlier."

Narri groaned and both of his parents began to laugh.

When her laughter subsided enough to speak, his mom said, "when Narri was a little ole Riolu, him and his friends decided to play a game of daring."

"Please don't tell him, mom," Narri begged her, but got no respite.

"Well one of his friends dared him to climb a nearby cliff. He tried but ended up falling and hurting himself pretty badly. He was wrapped up in bandages back then much like he is now. What exactly happened?"

He told them how he got hit by a vehicle, not mentioning me as usual.

"-and I am living with Jason's family until I fully recover."

They believed his story, which was good, but his dad said, "but how did you get here? And why did you bring Jason along?"

I saw him hesitate and he turned to me. "Do you mind? They should be understanding."

I nod my consent and Narri says to his parents, "to answer your question, I have to tell you something that you probably won't believe. Jason here is not really a Lucario. He is a human who was transformed into a Lucario. He got a letter from Mr Ignacious that invited him to Mr Ignacious' mansion. He invited me to come along."

His parents both stiffened up and seemed to look at me in a whole new way that was not as relaxed as before.

"So why do you speak so strangely? Is it because you were a human?", Narri's mother asked, seeming surprisingly calm about me.

"No, it's only because of this," I tapped the device in my ear, "that I can speak. It reads my thoughts and allows me to communicate until I learn how to use the power of aura to speak. Though Narri has been teaching me how to see using aura."

Their faces showed surprise and they turned to Narri. "You actually had enough patience to teach someone how to harness aura? I'm impressed." Narri's father patted Narri on the back.

"Well it's only because Jason has an immense amount of aura that I do have the patience. We actually started this morning and he saw the area in front of his face on his first try."

They looked at me with impressed looks and I turned my gaze to the water, embarrassed at the boasting.

Narri told his parents about where he had been and a few of his experiences that he had been through since he was gone. He had already told me most of the stuff he was telling them then, so I relaxed in the water and closed my eyes.

"Jason, it's time to go," I heard a voice say and I jerked awake.

Narri was standing out of the water and I didn't see his parents anywhere.

"My parents went ahead and went home. We need to be leaving as well, otherwise Mr Ignacious might send out a search party."

I got out of the water and felt a few pounds heavier due to the water that my fur had absorbed.

I saw that Narri was completely dry and asked, "how long ago did you get out?"

"Just a minute ago."

"How are you so dry? It's going to take forever for my fur to dry out."

He smiled and shook his head. "Right. I forgot you didn't know how to force the water off of you using aura. Let me show you." He got in the water and got back out then stood in front of me.

"You have to stand like this," he stood with his legs apart and his palms touching while his elbows were to his left and right.

I imitated his stance and he continued, "imagine a thin layer of aura covering your skin and imagine the aura flying away from your skin very quickly."

He concentrated for a moment and I saw all his fur seemed to poof out for a moment before settling back down, completely dry.

"That's a neat trick. I'll give it a try." I strained to imagine a thin layer of blue energy covering my whole body, and once the metal image was complete, I gave a sort of push outward.

I felt all my fur stand on end and I saw Narri stumble backwards a few steps with a surprised look.

"Are you ok?", I ask once he regained his balance.

"Just didn't expect such a big surge. If it was anyone else, I would say that they were showing off. Considering you barely know how to use aura, that was raw power you just exerted."

I didn't know how to respond, so I said, "sorry about that. Didn't mean to."

He waved his hand and said, "no problem. Let's just get a move on."

He led me through the village again, at a walk this time, and back to the clearing we had arrived in earlier in the day.

Pip and the other two Lucario were still there when we entered the clearing.

Narri said his farewells as I grabbed my pants and slipped them back on.

He led me back through the forest, going the opposite way we had come.

As we walked in silence, I heard the faint sound of wings flapping in the air that got louder by the moment.

I glanced around us, trying to find the source of the wings, when I saw Narri get slammed from the side by a large red Pokemon that had come from the sky.

I didn't even have time to compute what had happened to Narri when I was slammed from my front by something that moved too fast for me to see it.

The momentum of the thing that impacted me sent me flying backwards into a tree that I slammed into and slid to the ground in a daze.

Before I could do anything, I saw the figure that hit me start walking towards me.

I got up as quickly as my punished body allowed and made it to my feet as the figure, a guy who looked around my age, came up to me and slammed me against the tree with his hand around my throat.

I grabbed his hand to try to get it off of my throat but his grip was as that of iron. His pure black hair was uncombed and seemed a little long. His eyes were a deep amber color that was flecked with tiny dots of blue. They held a scrutinizing glare on my face, as though I was a source for one of his many problems. He had an annoyed expression as well. He wore a jacket that had a symbol on it that I couldn't make out at my angle.

I managed to get out, "who are you?"

He smiled and said, "really? That's what you ask first? So cliche."

He leaned in until he was only inches from my face and said, "well I'm a lot like you. Just not as, "complete"."

I saw his eyes change color from the amber, to a deep red. And his arm began to change as well. It grew orange scales that covered his skin completely and I felt his fingers begin to grow harder, as though they were made entirely of bone. His face grew a few scales in different areas, but nowhere near the extent of his arms.

Once his "transformation" was complete, he leaned in and whispered, "I'm Shade Mutatin."

* * *

Yup, I'm leaving a cliffhanger. That's right! *evil laugh as I imagine your slightly annoyed expressions*

Well I hope you liked this chapter, it's my longest yet. And took me the longest to type up. Please leave a review, always happy to see your opinion on my work.

And thanks to Alienschnitzelblast for giving me my first ever usable OC *roaring applause* I also want to thank Lucario-448 for making a nice suggestion. Lucario-448 was also the first ever person to PM me, so big round of applause (that no one will actually participate in). And lastly, sonic77. Thanks for sticking with my little fanfic.

And yeah, I'll be writing, you just be reviewing. I'm out of stuff to say. Peace! :P


	11. Chapter 11 Shade's past

Curse of the Lucario chap 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. And I don't claim to own Pokemon, only the characters that I have invented. Short and sweet.

This chapter is dedicated to Shade Mutatin. It's purpose is to give you an insight into his character and explain how he got his, "condition." It is written in a sort of summarized form of his life, so it will be lacking in details in a lot of places. While this chapter is very useful in figuring out the "why" in Shade's actions, it is not super important. But either way, enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 11

I was at the age of six when the possibility for Pokemon gene implants in human beings was discovered. Much research was put into the topic until the WPO discovered the experiments that had been planned, but not yet put into affect. The WPO was not pleased and made all forms of the research illegal.

My father, a wealthy businessman at the time, had to go into hiding because he funded the highly illegal research. He took me, his only living family, with him into hiding for two years. We were constantly moving, never staying in one place for more than a week. My mother died giving birth to me, and my father held it against me every day of my life.

We were in a hotel in some region that we had come to a day earlier when my father received a call on his untraceable phone. He spoke with someone for about five minutes, and hung up.

He then turned to me and said, "Shade. We are leaving soon. Pack up your things."

Even at the age of eight, I knew better than to argue or ask why. I just did it. In less than an hour, we had boarded a plane to some unknown destination.

Once we arrived, my father took me to this large building that was completely smooth. It had no windows or doors that I could see and was pure grey.

My father put his hand on my head and messed up my pure black hair in a affectionate fatherly display with a smile on his face. This confused and scared me because he had never, not once, done this before.

We stood there, in front of the faceless building, until a man came out of it. I'm not sure how he exited the building, or even how we got in, but the man took me and my father to a room with a desk and three chairs in it and left us there.

We sat in the chairs and waited. The chair was uncomfortable, but I knew better than to complain. Sometime later, a man came in and greeted my father with a smile and a handshake.

"Devan Mutatin, it has been too long since I've seen you. Almost two full years as I recall, how time flies."

He turned his attention to me and I had the urge to cringe and hide. "And you must be Shade. We are going to be seeing each other a lot for the next few years."

The way he said that gave me the urge to run, to run away from this man with that evil greedy gleam in his eye and never look back.

But it was too late. I was in the devils domain. And you can't escape hell.

At first, they examined me. Forced me to do different exercises while they recorded the results. Forced me to stretch in ways that made me wish that my bones were made of rubber so it wouldn't be so painful. They stuck nettles into me that were filled with different things.

They took blood. A lot of blood. Sometimes enough to make me very, very sleepy. The place where I slept was a glorified cage. It was a pale white room with a bed, a door, and a chair. Not a spot of color aside from white. Not a window. Not a fan.

Nothing.

All throughout this, my father only saw me when I passed by him in the hallways or when he gave me orders.

For four years I was treated like that. In four years, the sun only touched my skin seventeen times. Each time, I remember it fondly. Like a kiss from a lover. I remember each time like it was imprinted on my brain. Fifteen of those times was when we were switching facilities when the WPO was close to finding us. The other two were times when I attempted to escape. They hurt me for that. They hurt me bad enough that I formed a shell against the world. I cared for no one. Because no one cared for me.

I was twelve when they finally cracked the code. Something about figuring out how to input the Pokemon bio-information into human DNA. Whatever it was, they decided it was finally time to test it out.

They put me to sleep for the procedure, so I didn't feel anything.

When I woke up, I discovered I was in a room that I hadn't seen before. It was actually interesting. There were books on the walls and my bed was an aqua-blue color. I saw that there was a window in the room and I froze in utter shock.

I seriously contemplated the possibility of me having died and gone on to a better place. After almost an hour of nothing happening, I decided to break one of the rules I had created for myself.

To hope.

I got off the bed and went over to the window. The sunlight that glowed through the glass gleamed off my pale pasty white skin. I saw the sun coming up and I basked in its glory. I saw that I was only about fifty years away from a white sand shoreline that was gently buffeted by waves of different sizes.

I saw palm trees waving around in the wind, so I assumed I was on some sort of island.

I don't know how long I stood there, not thinking, not doing anything, before I realized something.

Where my life had been dictated by rules and confinement for the entirety of the twelve years, now, I had some choice.

I grabbed onto that choice eagerly, and sat down on a nice little chair that was there and picked out a book that was on a shelf. I sat and read that book for so long. I never had been alone that long before.

Sometime later, I heard a knock on the door to my room and I frantically put the book back onto the shelf and got back into the bed.

Someone knocked on the door again and I wondered why they did not come in. I had never had that kind of pleasantry offered to me before in any of the facilities.

The door opened and my father walked in. "Hey sport," (sport?), "how are you feeling?"

I didn't respond, I didn't know the correct way to respond. He had never asked me this before, so I didn't know the correct way to speak without angering him.

My father messed with my hair and said, "well anyways. It's over. The procedure is done and we can see what happens."

I had to speak then. "What happens? What does that mean?"

I cringed, expecting an angry response, but my father answered in an even tone with a small smile.

"We can see how the procedure progresses. And what traits develop. But let's not discuss that now, let's go to the beach."

At the time, I didn't know what he meant and I didn't want to ask and possibly lose the chance to actually go outside. But a month later, it became obvious.

I was changing. The changes were small, but for someone who has lived a life of no change unless dictated by others, the changes were blatantly obvious.

At first, I hid the small scales that grew on my legs and arms. But because we lived on an island and I went swimming often, my father noticed. Especially when they began to grow on my face.

He began recording the places my scales appeared in, and for a full year, I continued to change.

I searched often for a boat, or something to get off the island with. But it quickly became apparent that whenever supplies was delivered, it was through some method that I never discovered.

My father had a laptop that he used to communicate with his superiors. One day, he got a message and came to my room with the biggest smile he had ever shown me.

"We are leaving tomorrow, the experiment has been declared a success and they are sending someone for us."

He left to go do something, probably go to bed so the next day would come sooner. I went to bed, but instead of sleeping, I laid there for the entire time, unable to sleep.

At one point in the night, I had gotten up and stared outside, admiring the moonlight as it reflected off the water.

I looked at my arm, at the multitude of orange scales that covered my skin, and for the first time, hated someone. While I had hated the scientists who forced this upon me, and the guards who constantly watched me at the facilities, they were forced to do their jobs. The one who I really blamed everything on was my father. He forced everything on me.

At some point, as I let that feeling fester deep within me, I realized that I had fewer scales on my arm than a moment before.

At the realization, I stared at my arm and saw perfectly smooth skin that was only slightly dotted with the hated orange scales.

But, as I watched, the scales reappeared on my skin like before. I checked on my legs, where the scales were most thick, and saw that they were popping back up after apparently disappearing.

Once they all appeared again, I noticed I did not feel the same way I had a minute or two before. I wasn't full of hatred for my father.

But even as I realized it, the feeling came back and I saw my scales begin to disappear again.

I held onto that feeling as long as possible and saw all the scales completely vanish from my body. I was normal.

For the rest of the night, I experimented with controlling my newfound ability to make the scales vanish. I figured out a way to make all scales vanish into my skin by triggering an odd feeling in my head that I had associated the trigger with.

By morning, I was a combination of completely exhausted and utterly hyperactive. I decided to hide my skill from my father. He would have just recorded it and made me do it again and again.

No. For the first time in my life, at the age of thirteen, I held a secret from my father.

When my father woke, he led me outside to a particular palm tree that I had passed by a hundred times before.

That morning, a man stood under it. He was accompanied by a Pokemon that I recognized as an Abra.

My father went to the man and shook his hand. "Hello. I assume you are our ride to headquarters?"

Headquarters? I expected some other facility where I would have been studied again.

The man nodded and said, "yes. Abra, use Teleport." The Abra raised its arms and we were surrounded by a white light for a few seconds before it faded and I saw we were in front of some giant building with an odd symbol on its front. It looked like a river filled with strange debris in the shape of an S.

"What's that, dad?", I asked him while pointing at the symbol on the front of the building.

He glanced at the symbol and only said two words, "Team Styx."

I wanted to ask what that was, but he hurried me along and I couldn't ask anything. The few people we passed by always stared at me, at my scales. It made me very self conscience and I kept my eyes to the ground.

My father led me through the building to a door that he shoved me through after saying, "you will behave. And do whatever they ask." It was not a request.

I stumbled as I crossed the threshold, but a strong pair of hands caught me and held me steady.

"Sorry, please don't get angry." I cringed and kept my eyes on the ground as I waited for the inevitable punishment.

A soft female voice responded, "it's no problem. Just try not to trip again."

I froze and wasn't sure what to say. I hadn't spoken to a girl in, well, ever. Literally, the last time I had spoken to the other gender was when I was six. There were some women in the facilities, but I never had to speak to any of them.

I lowered my head some more and said, "I'll try."

She laughed softly and I wasn't sure how to react. Thankfully, she said, "here, come with me. You're bound to be hungry."

Just as she said that, my stomach rumbled loudly and I remembered we hadn't bothered to eat breakfast before leaving the island. And from a nearby clock, it was around lunchtime here.

She laughed and grabbed my hand. "Guess I was right. Come on," she tugged on my hand and I walked so as to not be dragged along.

As she led the way, I glanced up and saw that she was wearing a shirt with that odd symbol on it. She had long brown hair that was straight and extended beyond her shoulders. She was kind of pretty in my opinion, but considering I had little experience with women, my opinion was of little value in that area.

She led me through a few different hallways, and even though this area looked like it was traveled often, we met no one.

After traversing the hallways for five more minutes, she brought me into a room that she unlocked with a key card that hung from around her neck.

The first room contained a couch that faced a large tv and a window that faced outside towards a large expanse of woodland. It also had two separate bookshelves with more books than I had ever read. It was quite beautiful in my eyes. I saw two doors in the room that led to other rooms.

"Just relax on the couch while I grab us something to eat, I didn't have any breakfast so I'm hungry as well. And the name is Linda." She slipped the tv remote into my hand and left the room.

I just stared at the remote. While I understood the basic principle in using remotes to change channels and turn on the tv, I never really needed the knowledge. I never had a tv in the facilities and there wasn't one on the island. I vaguely remember watching cartoons when I was eight, but no specifics.

So instead of turning it on and surfing around, I set the remote down and sat back on the couch.

A few minutes later, Linda came back with two bowls of something steaming.

"Here, these aught to fill you up." She handed me my bowl and a spoon.

She started to eat, so I ate and was surprised at the pleasant taste of the simple meal that she had prepared in such a short time.

We ate in relative silence, the only sound being the tapping of the metal spoons against the glass bowls.

Once we finished, she came back into the room and waved for me to follow her, "come on. I've been told to bring you to some hot shot scientist a few floors above us."

I felt a spear of fear jab through me and only barely stopped myself from showing it. Instead, I got up and followed her as she led me to an elevator.

Linda hit the button, and as we waited, I realized something.

"You've acted as though you haven't even noticed my scales. Why?"

She flinched at the question and responded, "because I knew they must be a very big burden. And I didn't wish to make it any heavier."

Her words and her consideration confused me, and again, I didn't know what to say. So I stayed silent throughout the elevator ride.

When the doors opened, she gently nudged me forward and led me down a hallway.

As we passed several doors, I heard a small sound from one of them that sparked my curiosity. But before I could act on it, the door that the sound originated from burst open and a guy that was about sixteen stepped out of it while moaning and covering his face with his hands.

Linda grabbed my shoulder to stop me and I stared at the guy as some man in a labcoat came out of the room and grabbed his arm. My nervousness has evaporated at this point, replaced by intense curiosity.

"Kinny. Let's get you back in there. Yes, this way." He led the poor guy gently back into the room, and when he started to close the door, I saw the guy lower his hands and I gasped in shock.

He had purple scales and two huge canines that extended almost to his chin. It looked like he was part Arbok, the snake Pokemon.

I was not alone. There was another. And he was only a few yards away from me!

"Hey wait!" I moved forward to go into the room, to see if I was right. To see if that guy had suffered the life I had suffered.

To share my pain with another. Something that had never been within my reach before.

But when I tried, Linda clenched my shoulder firmly and led me down the hallway.

"How many are there? Like me?" I was slightly in shock, but had enough sense to question her.

"I don't know. I've never been this far into the facility. I've just been ordered to take care of you for today and bring you wherever they tell me to bring you. Here we are," she indicated a door and I knocked on it.

"Come on in," a man's voice comes from the other side and I flinch from the nervousness that had risen again.

Linda opened the door and gently nudged me in while staying in the hallway. The room was pretty small, only big enough for a table, a desk, and a chair.

"I suppose you are Mutatin's kid, right?" I saw that there was a man with his back turned to me who was looking out of a window. He was the source of the question.

"Yes sir." I barely kept the fear from showing in my tone.

He turned around and I saw that he was pretty young, only in his twenties at least. He had a light brown goatee going on and he sported a pair of glasses. Frankly, the guy seemed pretty nice, when you looked at him. He looked like someone who would enjoy a long physiological conversation about the universe over playing any sort of sport.

"Well I've heard about you. You're kind of a celebrity around here. Please, take a seat." He indicated a doctor's table that had the usual paper on it that would crackle at every twitch.

I went to the table and sat myself onto the paper while trying to make as little noise as possible. Meanwhile, the man had turned to read something on a clipboard that he had in one hand.

"Do you know how you got to be like that? How they were able to change your DNA so that you began showing Pokemon-like traits?" He took his eyes off the clipboard to ask this and he locked them onto me.

"No sir. I tried asking once, but they didn't tell me." I had tried, once. But all it got me was a glare and I didn't try again. I knew it would accomplish nothing.

"Well it's actually very simple for something so complicated," he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, as though he was about to give a speech. "When they put the traits into your DNA, they made it so that your DNA would accept the new code pretty easily. The hard part was making it so that it kept doing it, over and over again. So they manipulated it into spreading, like a virus. Once enough of your replicating cells had been changed to produce the Pokemon traits, they began replicating at a extremely fast rate. Much faster than normal cells."

He took a moment to pause and glance out the window before continuing. "Once all that fun stuff was over, all that was left was to watch and see what happened. So that's what we did. After awhile, signs finally started to show. They became more rapid for a short while, but then it slows down and the cells begin to replicate at a slower rate. Not stopping, but not increasing either. So there is no more noticeable change."

He paused for a breath, and I asked, "excuse me, but why are you telling me any of this?"

He stopped and seemed to think for a moment. "I really don't know. I guess I thought I might as well tell you. Just so you would know," he seemed to shake his head sadly and said, "they decided that the time it took for the cells to replicate took too long. We developed a kind of catalyst that increases cells production exponentially. I've been ordered to administer it to you."

My stomach dropped as he grabbed a nettle out of a briefcase and gently grabbed my arm.

"Hold still. This is going to sting," he says as he injected me with whatever was in the nettle. Once he injected me with that, "catalyst", he had Linda take me back to the room that she had brought be to before.

Whatever was in that injection, it made me very sleepy. I only just made it to the bed before I collapsed.

When I woke up, it was instantly apparent that the catalyst had been a resounding success. My arms and legs had fully succumbed to the orange scales, leaving no space for my old skin to inhabit. My chest was covered as well. My face, thankfully, only had a few extra scales. But my hands... they were pale white and very sharp. They were also very hard, like bone. My feet had been spared and had no new scales.

All of this I discovered within seconds of regaining consciousness. Once I rolled over onto my back, I discovered a sharp pain that originated from the center of my back.

I immediately sat up on the bed and discovered that my shirt was being pulled from behind by something that was connected to my back. In a surge of revelation, I began muttering, "no no no no. Please don't be that!"

I ripped off my shirt, literally. (My claw-like hands ripped through my shirt easily.) And I positioned myself in front of a mirror that was just a little taller than me.

I stared into the mirror, wishing the sight I saw was false. I now had two large appendages that were attached in between my shoulder blades. They were blue wings with orange bones holding the flesh in place. As I stared at them, I felt a new feeling in my mind. Without conscious effort, I made one wing twitch a little.

It felt a little like using your brain to control strings that you couldn't see. Over the thirty minutes that I stood in front of the mirror, I figured out how to make the wings fold seamlessly against my back, and how to make them extend to their full length.

I tried using my trigger to make the wings disappear. While almost all of my scales vanished from my legs and arms, and all of them disappeared from my face, the wings did not become even slightly less noticeable. They were there to stay, and I had no control over that. Though my fingers became normal when I tried the trigger, thankfully.

I let the trigger go and allowed all the scales to return along with my bony fingers. I noticed that my eyes had changed as well. They were a red color when I wasn't using the trigger.

As all my scales, all the hated scales, reappeared, I heard a knock from the door.

"Come in," I said in a monotone as I sat on the bed, letting my hands hang between my legs.

The door opened to reveal Linda, not who I was expecting.

She flinched at my appearance and sat on the bed next to me. She didn't say anything, she just sat there. A silent companion.

Surprisingly, her very presence seemed to help. After awhile, I stood up and said, "What now?"

She stood up and walked over to the door. "I was told to bring you to the director the moment you woke up."

I glanced at a clock and saw that she had taken up at least twenty minutes comforting me.

She noticed my look and shrugged. "He doesn't know when you woke up. Let's get going."

I walked out of the room, not bothering to grab my shirt. Nothing would hide the wings efficiently and my shirt really wasn't up to the task of covering up the old me.

Linda took me to the elevator and used a shiny key card on a slot in the elevator. The elevator rose and Linda said, "I've never actually met the man, but I've heard he's none too pleasant. Please be careful not to make him angry, he's an especially cruel man. From what I've heard, at least."

"Thanks," I say gratefully. "I just hope this is the end of it."

I could tell she wanted to say something comforting, but she probably didn't know what to say.

A minute later, the elevator door opened and I stepped out into a lavish room that had a woman behind a desk who was typing away on a computer. The room was full of artwork and very expensive looking furniture. I made sure "accidentally" leave a scratch along a chairs armrest that I passed by.

We went to the secretaries desk and she glanced up from her computer. To her credit, her only reaction to me was a slight widening of the eyes. She pressed a button on a little speaker and said, "sir, the guests you were expecting are here."

She removed her finger and a man's voice came through a second later. "Send him in."

Linda started to come through the door with me, but the secretary said, "you can't go in there with him. Rules. Sorry."

Linda looked ready to protest, but I put my hand on her arm and said, "it's fine. Just wait out here for me."

She nodded and took a seat on a nearby chair, looking strangely worried.

I went through the door and saw a man in a room darkened to almost pitch black. The only sources of light was a small lamp on his desk and the light from the room I had come from.

"Come in. I've been waiting," the man orders and I close the door behind me, cutting off all the light that the door supplied and plunging myself into almost complete darkness.

* * *

Whew! Longest chapter yet and it wasn't even in Jason's POV. I think I did pretty good on this, but please review and tell me your opinion. I'm sorry for taking so long to write this up and post it. I had to put myself in a different state of mind when I was thinking up Shades past. My friends actually thought something was wrong for almost two days straight when I tried to put myself in Shade's state of mind. :P

Much thanks to Alienschnitzelblast for this epic OC. From his suggestion, this entire chapter was spawned.

Please PM me or put in a review the kind of Pokemon you want to see (up to gen 4 please). Or send in suggestions for an OC via PM. They are very welcome.


	12. Chapter 12 Shade's mission

Curse of the Lucario chap 12

Disclaimer: Still don't own Pokemon. I don't claim to own Pokemon, just the characters I invent and the storyline.

Finally got this chapter out. Sorry for taking so long. You've probably been wondering what happened to Jason, right? Well you'll finally find out how Shade got to Jason and why he was there.

In this chapter, it will start off in the POV of Shade. It will be a few years after I left off from the last chapter. The indication of a POV switch from Jason to Shade or vice versa is "JASONS POV" or "SHADE'S POV". And with that out of the way, enjoy.

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Chapter 12

It had been three years since I first met the leader of Team Styx. The man didn't say much the first time we met. And in all the times afterwards, he only spoke to me to give orders. He sent me on many retrieval missions, to get objects in high risk areas that he didn't want to risk his men in. I would swoop in, literally, and grab the object and get out. I was never in any real danger, and I was never even close to being discovered. While I had to take out a patrolling Pokemon now and then, I made sure to only knock it out and not cause it too much pain. I only did enough to achieve my objective and not hurt anyone. That was my personal objective.

Somewhere close to my fifteenth birthday, the leader was killed in some sort of capture attempt by the WPO. My father got the spot as Team Styx's leader. It was a few months after my sixteenth birthday that I saw the news on the tv about some guy who had transformed into a Lucario.

I sat up on the reinforced couch that I had been given. (I had been allowed my own room after awhile of going on the missions and a tv for entertainment purposes between missions.)

But I sat up and listened carefully to what the live reporter was saying. The man was standing in front of what appeared to be a high school in late afternoon.

"There are several confirmed eyewitness accounts to the suspected rumor that a high school student, Jason Simmons, transformed yesterday in early afternoon."

I grunted in surprise. Had one of Team Styx's little "experiments" gone astray for once? Would this be the blunder that revealed everything to the world?

"From what eyewitnesses claim, the student was harassed by someone and shoved down. A second later, the student stood up and transformed into a Lucario. There has been no word on his condition or anything else but there is a video of the transformation on our website. It was shot firsthand as the transformation took place."

I saw some excited movement from behind the reporter and he turned around with a surprised look on his face.

"There he is! Get a shot of him!" The camera started moving forward and the shake made it nearly impossible to get a clear look at their apparent target, which was a blue smudge with all the camera shake.

After the blue-ish figure disappeared behind a vehicle, I saw the vehicle back up and got a clear look at the guy. In all appearances, he seemed like a Lucario. The only thing different about him was the fact that he wore clothes.

I flipped off the tv when it was obvious they were not going to say anything more on the subject and sat back on the couch with a thoughtful look on my face.

Perhaps Team Styx had nothing to do with it? It was a possibility, but unlikely. Especially when you took into account the weapons that were rumored to be powered from aura that had been recently constructed. Lucario, as everyone knew, was a prime candidate for aura snatching.

No matter. While it was interesting, it had nothing to do with me. I got off the couch and went outside into a hallway.

"Hey Shade!", I heard a familiar voice that always made me smile as I closed the door.

"Hey Sierra, how's it going?" I turned as she came up to me and gave me a hug. She was a hugger.

"Oh, it's going fine. Though I had some trouble with my fur this morning when I attempted to eat pancakes." She held up her hand and I saw that her fluffy white arm fur was still wet from the apparent cleansing it required after getting syrup in it.

Sierra was like me. She had the genes of Lopunny put in her. As a result, she had brown fur over most of her body, and fluffy white fur on her wrists and most of her lower legs. Her eyebrows were also white and fluffy and extended over her forehead much farther than normal. Her ears went straight up for almost half a foot before turning sharply and extending almost three feet down her back. The top of the arch was about eye level to me. They were also quite fluffy. I had asked if she had grown a tail, for a few of us had, but she never gave a definite answer.

After inspecting the wet fur I laughed and said, "well I warned you, didn't I?"

Her lips formed a pouting expression and she punched me in the arm lightly.

I rolled my eyes. Even though Sierra was sixteen, like me, she acted like a little kid all the time.

"Where are you headed? Training?", Sierra asks, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm having Charizard teach me how to do some aerial maneuvers to dodge flying Pokemon."

She giggled and added, "and perhaps power lines as well?"

I groaned and massaged my shoulders, remembering that particularly bad lesson. Thankfully, my body healed much faster than normal people and I was back on my feet in an hour.

"Hey, those power lines jumped right in front of me. I'm pretty sure we should check for suicidal lines before we set them up."

Sierra couldn't respond due to her laughing so hard.

I started walking towards the elevator and she followed me, finally letting her laughter die out.

"What have you been up to? Been wagging your ears?", I said with a smile. I was referring to her training with controlling her ears to do different tasks. But I often called it, "wagging", to tease her.

She stopped laughing and punched me with her ear, which left a bruise. Yup, she had been practicing.

I rubbed the spot while saying, "ow! Was that really necessary? It was a joke."

She crossed her arms and didn't speak. Oh, boy. The silent treatment.

I decided to indulge her and I said nothing. When we got to the bottom, she went in the opposite direction as me and I rolled my eyes at her attitude.

Whatever. I decided to just let her pout for however long she wished. I headed down a hallway that had a slight trickle of people going through it. As usual, when I headed down the hallway, everyone else moved a little out of my way. They all tried to avoid me as politely as possible. It's been that way ever since I got my there. People knew that I was once fully human, but they avoided me anyways.

That was fine by me. It's not that I am antisocial, I just prefer to be alone with a good book or a single friend than with a group of people I barely know. And the few friends I had were all like me. Mutated by Team Styx for their own purposes. There were ten of us that I knew of, but the only ones I actually spoke to was Sierra and two others.

I made my way through the building unhindered and came to a doorway that was guarded by two large men in the Styx uniform.

"Morning," I greeted them as I went through the doorway and they nodded to me without a word. They were somewhat comfortable around me since I came through there almost every day.

I made my way through the familiar maze of rooms and found the locker that was designated specifically for me. After unlocking it, I retrieved the only item within. A regular pokeball.

I held the pokeball close to my mouth and whispered, "time to get some exercise."

I imagined feeling the pokeball shake slightly at its occupants desire to move around. After locking up my locker, I went out a side door in the building and headed to the forest to the buildings back.

Once I was far enough into the trees, I took out the pokeball and tossed it up into the air.

"Come on out. You probably want the exercise."

The pokeball opened up mid air and let out the Charizard contained within. I had been given Charizard after it was discovered that the wings I had grown could actually fly. Charizard had taught me how to fly and was constantly showing me new tricks or techniques. Charizard had been my first real friend ever since I had gotten the scales. He was like a gruff instructor most of the time, but he had his moments of kindheartedness.

When Charizard fully formed onto the grass, he stretched out all his limbs and groaned loudly.

"Sorry. I've been busy for awhile and couldn't visit."

Charizard just huffed and continued to stretch. I knew I was forgiven so I went ahead and took off my shirt and started to stretch out my wings. While my specially redesigned shirt did allow me to fly, it hindered my movement slightly and I didn't need that.

For an hour, Charizard taught me several methods of dodging airborne objects or attacks. The method Charizard used for me to practice with was that he stayed on the ground and he attempted to blast me with his ember attack and I tried to dodge it. Because of my scales, and it was a weak attack, I didn't get burnt much.

We trained until lunchtime, and after eating, we trained some more. As I was performing a particularly difficult set of dodging maneuvers, I saw a large bolt of electricity shot straight up that originated from the forest a good ways closer to the building than we were.

I stopped the maneuver and waved to Charizard, "let's take a little break. I'll go see what he wants."

Charizard nodded and positioned himself onto a large tree branch. I rolled my eyes as he leaned against the tree and dozed off. Meanwhile, I headed in the direction of the bolt of electricity.

Less than a minute later, I heard the faint sound of voices and zeroed in on the direction of the sound.

It was Sierra and Benjamin, who everyone just calls Ben. I swooped down low enough to tuck in my wings and drop the last few yards to the ground.

"That never gets old! You're just like, whoosh! Whoosh!", Ben made noises to accompany his flying motions as he attempted to copy what I looked like when I land. Like Sierra, Ben got overly excited at some things.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I have yet to hear that particular sound when landing."

Ben shot me an annoyed look and his face sparked slightly. He had Pikachu DNA implanted and had the two red electric pouches on his cheeks that Pikachu is known to have. When he gets overly excited or angry, they sometimes sparked. I've been accidentally shocked a few times when I got a little too close.

"Whatever. Did you see that beam of electricity? I think I'm getting the hang of controlling it." To prove his words, he stepped to the left and pointed his palms at a tree. With a look of extreme concentration, he sent electricity through his hands and it slammed into the tree.

I whistled in appreciation at the damage he had caused to the bark and he smiled widely.

"I haven't been sitting around either, ya know." Sierra flipped her hair and went over to another tree. She raised up her ear and used it to punch the tree. The truck shook slightly at the immense impact and when she removed her ear, there was a respectable dent in it.

I whistled again. "You guys are making me feel lazy. All I can do is scratch."

Ben snorted loudly and said, "yes. "Scratch". You put a huge gash in anything you scratch. Don't be letting us steal all your thunder. Show us how you've improved."

I rolled my eyes and went to an unhurt tree. A slashed at the tree and left five deep grooves in the bark.

"Not bad," Sierra says while nodding appreciably.

We talked for a little while longer before they decided to head back and I went back to training with Charizard. We trained for the rest of the day until we couldn't see properly. Once it got to that point, we went inside, ate, and I put him back in his pokeball. After stowing his pokeball in my locker, I went back up to my room and went to bed.

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door rather loudly.

I groaned and made myself get up. The knocking got a little louder and I grumbled, "this better be good." It was very early in the morning, so I was still very tired.

I opened up the door and accepted a envelope that a messenger extended to me. I took it without a word and closed my door.

I used one of my claws to open the letter and extracted the paper within.

"You've probably heard of the guy who's turned into a Lucario from the news. If not, ask the pilot on your way. Details are waiting on the plane in hanger 7. Charizard is authorized on this mission. Failure is not optional."

Once I finished the letter, I crumpled it up in my hand and said, "yeah. I love you to, dad."

I grabbed a shirt and my jacket that I wore when I had to go out into the world and made my way to hanger 7, grabbing Charizard on my way there. I got in the plane that was waiting there and it immediately took off.

I sat up in the co-pilots seat and asked, "he said you would provide the details to this. What am I supposed to do? Steal something? Retrieve an object he's providing us?"

"None of the above. This is a capture mission," the guy says without letting his gaze leave the air in front of him.

"Capture? What?" I was shocked. My father knew I couldn't hurt anyone. I would jeopardize the mission before I hurt an innocent person. I had to fail missions on several occasions before my father caught on.

"He knows of your, "reluctance", to do what is necessary. Look in the box." He tapped a box that was between us and I opened it and took out the object within.

"It's a pokeball," I said with a questioning tone. That's what it was, but not the regular red and white model. This one was gold, blue, and black.

The man nodded. "Yeah, it's special though. It has the property of a master ball, but only for Lucarios. You are to capture Jason Simmons using the painless and simple method of hitting him with that pokeball. Once you have captured him, return to the designated location and we will return to HQ."

I nodded, because that's what I was supposed to do, and asked, "where are we headed?"

The pilot explained that the trip would take the rest of the night to complete, so I went to sleep. The guy woke me up when we had already landed and brought me to some hotel.

I met a small team of three people who were designated with keeping tabs on the guy I was supposed to capture. They had a flying Pokemon on his position at all times that stayed out of sight but close enough to never lose him.

It was almost three hours after I arrived there that they got excited and decided it was time for me to try to capture him.

I was told he was being taken somewhere on a Dragonite's back. They had me and Charizard tail the Dragonite, while staying out of sight, and they eventually landed at some huge mansion.

The flight had exhausted me and I let Charizard keep watch to see when the guy came back out. I apparently got too comfortable and dozed off, because I was shaken awake by my irate Charizard.

"What? Is he leaving?", I asked as I hopped up and followed Charizard.

He shook his head and pointed at the gates. I saw a regular human guy who was dressed like a butler talking to two separate Lucario. Jason was easily identifiable by the shorts he wore.

After a minute, the guy let them out and the regular Lucario led them into the forest.

"I think this is our chance. Let's get into position." We had discussed the plan earlier. We would both fly high into the sky and wait for an opportunity. When that time came, Charizard was to slam the Lucario to the ground and hold him. At the same time, I was to somehow knock the guy off his feet and hold him down while I tapped him with the special pokeball and captured him.

The plan was perfect, in theory. We got into position and waited. Unfortunately, they met up with some other Lucario, and a little while later, went into a nearby Lucario village we hadn't known about.

We had to wait almost two hours before they left and our opportunity came. Charizard moved a little faster than planned, but Jason had no time to react to my presence. I slammed the guy hard enough for him to go flying against a tree. I saw he was dazed, so I took a moment and used my trigger to hide my scales. It was a natural reaction against people in the outside world.

I walked forward as he made it to his feet and I slammed my hand against his throat to pin him to the tree.

I stared at the guy as he struggled in my grasp. I was angry, not at him, but at my father. This guy seemed pretty innocent and I had attacked him out of the blue. He probably had done nothing to provoke this. But there I was, my hand to his throat and him struggling to breath. I scoweled at the guy, irritated that I was stuck with this mission.

The guy managed to croak out, "who are you?"

I smiled, actually kind of amused at the question, and said, "really? That's what you ask first? So cliche."

I leaned in until I was only inches from my face and said, "well I'm a lot like you. Just not as, "complete"." I'm not sure why I did this, but I let my trigger loose. My scales came back along with my claws and red eyes. I saw all the guys emotions in his own red eyes. Shock, disbelief, some fear as well.

I leaned in until I was only a few inches from his face and said, "I'm Shade Mutatin."

JASON'S POV.

I couldn't keep the shock from my expression when the guy, Shade Mutatin, transformed. He said he was like me? I didn't know if he knew how I transformed or not, but I was about to try to find out how he did that trick with getting rid of the scales.

I managed to say, "how do you do that? Make yourself normal?"

Shade looked surprised for a moment and his grip loosened for a moment, allowing me a little more breath.

"It's a trick I learned a long time ago. I doubt you would be able to do it. Now hold still."

He put his free hand in his pocket and fished around for a moment, looking for something.

I started to struggle again as I realized he was probably looking for a pokeball. I managed to get my foot up and I slammed him away from me as hard as I could. I used the tree at my back for a base and that added to the force.

He flew through the air for about ten yards and fell to the ground. I managed to get myself in a fighting stance and I readied an aura sphere for his next move.

SHADE'S POV

I was slammed back a good ways when Jason kicked me as I was searching for the special pokeball I had been given. My breath was knocked from my body and I needed a few more seconds than normal to get back to my feet. I saw that Jason had prepared an aura sphere and I had a insane idea. Even though I would get punished, they couldn't really blame me for it. So I put the idea into action.

I got out the pokeball and said to him in a loud voice, "one chance. Please don't miss!"

Before he could ask what I meant, I threw the pokeball at him in a weak toss. Jason jumped backwards and sent his prepared aura sphere into the pokeball, shattering it into so much scrap.

I smiled widely with a relieved feeling and said, "oh no. I failed my mission. I suppose I should get back to the rendezvous point."

I extended my wings and called out for Charizard to follow me. We then flew back to our base of operations, I smiled the whole flight back.

JASON'S POV

I stood there a full minute after Shade did something very strange. He smiled and barely tossed that pokeball at me. It was like he didn't want to capture me? And then he flew off, another thing to add to the weirdness.

And what was that about failing his mission? Was he from Team Styx? That would explain the S shaped symbol on his shirt that I saw when he stood up after I knocked him down. But if he was from Team Styx, why didn't he capture me? He was probably stronger than me, faster than me, and he had me by my throat. I was still dazed even after slamming him away from me, so he could have hit me with the pokeball. Frankly, if he had thrown it any harder, I would have missed with my aura sphere. Instead, he extended his wings and flew off with a Charizard.

Why didn't he?

I stood there, trying to compute all that had happened in the last two or three minutes.

"Jason! Where are you? Jason!" I heard Narri yelling my name and I snapped out of my reverie.

"Over here!", I yelled out and walked in the direction of his voice.

I found Narri after a few minutes of searching. The Charizard had tied his leg to the branch of a tall tree and he was hanging upside down.

When I found him, I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The pissed off look he gave me didn't help the laughter.

He growled and said, "this isn't funny. Get me down."

While still chuckling, I climbed up the tree and cut the rope holding him. He thankfully twisted mid air and landed on his feet instead of his head.

I climbed back down and stood next to Narri as he cut the rest of the rope from his leg.

"How in the world did that Charizard have enough time to tackle and tie you to a tree?"

He shrugged and tossed the shredded rope away from us. "I really don't know, it's a little bit blurry. I just remember getting hit and flying for a moment before slamming into a tree. I guess I was dazed because the Charizard had enough time to tie my leg to a tree before shoving me and leaving me to hang there. What happened to you?"

I shook my head. "I'm really not sure what just happened. The guy who attacked me apparently was on a mission to capture me, but didn't seem to want to actually do it. And when I destroyed the pokeball he threw at me, he just smiled and flew off."

"Flew off? Did you hit your head?" He gave me a concerned look and I waved my hand.

"While I did hit my head, I'm not confused." I explained what Shade had said to me, his scales, and his wings.

Once I finished, Narri gave me a look that told me he was questioning either my sanity, or my truthfulness.

I made a sound of irritation and waved my paws in an irritated gesture. "Let's just get back to Mr Ignacious' mansion. I think it's about time for us to head home."

Narri agreed and we headed back. Hannah and her mother had left by the time we got back and after we thanked Mr Ignacious profusely for inviting us, we had Dragonite take us home. We didn't bother telling Mr Ignacious about our encounter with Shade, it wasn't his concern.

It was getting dark when we arrived on the front lawn of my house. After thanking Dragonite for the amazing(-ly boring) ride, I rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer.

After a moment, the door unlocked and opened to reveal my mother.

She looked strangely relieved and said, "oh good, you're back. You have visitors, Jason."

Visitors? I wasn't expecting anyone. But with my mom's worried look, it was bound to be important in some way.

She gestured towards the living room and I walked in. I stopped in the threshold, surprised at who it was.

"Well hey Jason. Where have you been?" Jack was sitting on my couch with a cup of sweet tea in one hand that was half empty.

I was about to respond, when I saw the rooms other occupant.

"What are you doing here?", I said in an angry tone. Directing it at the older woman who I had met first at the WPO HQ. She was leaning against the wall and had a pained face.

"I'm here because he dragged me along," she gestured at Jack, who I stared at, waiting for answers.

He set his cup down and cleared his throat. "Well when we lost track of you, we decided that we should check in on you-"

"Lost track! You were spying on me?!" I felt part of my rising anger turn to Jack and I resisted the urge to punch something.

Jack looked uncomfortable, but said, "we had already put a tracking device in your communicator. When you suddenly flew off our detection radius, we were concerned-"

"We decided it was time we stepped things up a notch," the woman cut Jack off and he acquired a pained look.

"It was decided that, in light of your recent disappearance, you will not be going back to school for the foreseeable future."

Her declaration knocked me back a step, as though she has physically shoved me.

"Hang on a minute!" My mom came into the room with a look of extreme anger that I had never seen before. "You will not be jeopardizing my son's education just because you THINK that he will be attacked!"

Before my mom could continue, Narri stepped forward and said, "but we were attacked. And we think it was Team Styx."

His words shocked both me and them. I didn't expect him to say it right in front of Jack and the woman.

I sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Some guy name Shade Mutatin attacked me and Narri when we were visiting his family."

My mom's reaction was to be expected, shock and then making sure we were alright. It was Jack's and that woman's reaction that surprised me.

They both stiffened up and glanced at each other for a moment, each with a question in their eyes.

Jack stood and said, "I need to speak with Jason outside, please." He left through the back door, leaving no room for argument.

I followed him outside, where it was almost fully dark and the streetlights had come on.

He paced back and forth for a moment before saying, "I realize you probably will not like this, but I have to say it. The guy who attacked you, his name was Shade Mutatin, right?"

I nod, wondering what the deal was. Did he know Shade?

"The leader of Team Styx is Devan Mutatin. He had a son named Shade."

I took a step back at the implications that he had just uncovered.

He turned to me and his face was in shadow due to the failing light and angle. "If what you are telling us is true, then this proves that Team Styx has its crosshairs on you."

He shook his head in a defeated way and said, "and they will do anything to get you. Go through anyone," he looked me straight into the eye, "including your family. I should know, they killed mine. I'm sorry about this, but it must be done."

I was about to ask what he meant, but someone from behind me jabbed something thin and sharp into my arm and shoved me down.

The adrenalin that rose to the surface did nothing to stop the encroaching darkness, and I soon passed out.

* * *

Cliffhanger! Yup, looks that way. Finally hit 5,000 words, so that's a milestone passed.

Hope you like the story so far. Please review and tell me how you like this recent plot twist. PM me if you have any suggestions, requests, or questions. Tell me what kind of Pokemon you would like to see in my story. But either way, please review, it's always nice to see people's opinions. If you see ways for me to improve my story or writing, please do not hesitate to share it.

Also, I have begun Betareading. Please check out my betareading preferences on my profile if you want my services. Please also check out my, "not willing to betaread", section before sending a request.


	13. Chapter 13 Assault on the WPO

Curse of the Lucario chap 13

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I do not claim to own it. I only claim to own all original characters and the storyline, which I invented.

Thanks for waiting so long for this chapter. I've been utterly lazy. If you were expecting a excuse like a family death or big time illness, don't hold your breath. I have actually been busy with some life stuff, but I haven't been spending as much time writing as I could have. What can I say? I've been catching up on Naruto and reading other Fanfictions. But, without further ado, enjoy.

(This chapter will start in Jason's POV. I was planning on starting with Shade's POV, but I think Sonic77 really wants to know what happened to Jason first :P)

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Chapter 13

I regained consciousness after some time. And with consciousness, came a horrible headache that threatened to split my skull from the inside. You see, waking up after being forcibly put to sleep is not pleasant. It feels as though you are having to pull every limb on your body out of melted tar using only your fingertips and a very unreliable pulley system. And then I had to get a hold over the unrelenting pulsating pain in my brain so I didn't pass out again.

I had to do that for awhile, and once I got past the debilitating pain, I ventured to open my eyes. Everything was blurry and indistinct so I tried blinking a few times. It helped, so I continued to do just that. Blink. I did so until I realized that my vision was mostly clear and I could see somewhat clearly. With clear eyesight came the memory of why I was there. I had been kidnapped by Jack and the WPO. They had taken me from my own backyard to this, prison? I concentrated enough to actually look at where I was.

I was in some very plain room. It had no door that I could see. It had the bed I was laying in, a chair, and little else. The bed was surprisingly comfortable, but I didn't notice it in my confused and ill state.

I managed to sit up and nearly vomited from the rush of nausea that rose to my head. After getting that feeling under control, I stood up. I felt really weak and unsteady, like I had just gotten over the flu. My tail, usually held up to a certain spot behind me, was dragging the ground as it was too difficult to hold up. Even my ears, usually pointing straight up, were bent slightly in my sick state.

Even though I felt like I was about to keel over, I managed to walk around the room a little. I looked at the walls and tried to find some sort of imperfection in the smooth surface. Some sort of indication of an exit or entryway. I checked the corners of the room along with the unblimished walls.

There was nothing.

As I was inspecting one wall for the third time, I heard a voice from behind me.

"You're not going to find it. The exit."

I turned around a little too fast and I had to hold back another rush of nausea as I looked at who had somehow snuck in without me noticing.

It was Jack.

I tried to say, "where the hell am I?" But nothing came. I got confused and tried again. Nothing. Was I unable to speak while very sick?

"They decided to take the communication device from you. Sorry, not my choice."

I felt my ear and found that the device that I had grown so used to was no longer there. I was stricken mute without that stupid device, and the guy who basically caused that was standing right in front of me. So I did what any seriously confused, and hurting, guy would do in that situation.

I jumped forward, ignoring all the lethargy and sickness for a moment, and tried my very hardest to punch Jack in the stomach. To let out my frustration and irritation at my voice being taken in a single painful blow of intense ferocity.

It didn't help that he just took a step back and melted through the wall.

His sudden disappearance caused me to stop in shock and I bent over at my waist from the sudden rise of pain in my head.

"At least try to see this from our angle." I twisted around and saw that Jack had come out of another wall.

"You have been openly attacked by an organization that wants to use you to power a weapon of mass destruction. It's the WPO's job to stop that kind of thing."

I pushed the pain back as much as I could, stood up straight, and glared at Jack. I couldn't express my feelings with words, so I tried to do so with my eyes.

He just frowned and took a step forward with a sad expression, his arms extended and palms upward in a pleading gesture.

"Really, I am sorry. But I have no control at this point. The "higher ups" have decided that you should just be contained until the threat has passed or we figure out a way to reverse it."

I crossed my arms, and snorted. I'm not sure why I did it, but I did. I was annoyed at my situation and I couldn't really fight back. It was the only real rebellion I could muster up at the time.

Jack sighed and let his arms drop. "I'll try to get them to let me bring you something to keep you occupied."

Before I could make any other move, he turned around and walked straight through the concrete wall. I jumped forward and tried to go through the wall.

End result? A very painful impact with a huge amount of humiliation piled on top. After I stopped rolling on the ground and moaning while clutching my stinging snout, I sat back on the bed.

What were my options? I could try blasting my way out. But I wouldn't get far in my weakened condition. Or I could sit and wait for the right opportunity.

Judging by the fact that I didn't even know where I was on the planet, I chose the latter option. I just laid back on the bed and got comfortable.

"Jason. Please wake up."

My eyes snapped open and I determined that I had gotten at least a few hours of sleep. Judging by my lack of debilitating headache, I must have rested quite well.

I sat up on the bed and saw that it was Jack with some man I had never seen before. He was pretty old and wore pretty casual work clothes. As though he was prepared to go out and do some yard work or something. He had a well trimmed beard that was dark brown and his laugh lines on his face made him seem pretty likable.

"This is Mr Jon. We heard that you have been attempting to utilize your latent ability with aura and I was given permission to bring him here to teach you. And," he dug around in his pocket for a moment, "I was also given permission to give you this." He tossed the object from his pocket to me and I caught it.

The communicator! I slipped it into my ear and was actually grateful for the pain it caused to connect to me.

"Ahh. Thanks for this. This makes being here a little more bearable." I felt a strangely overwhelming sense of relief from hearing my mental voice. It felt as though I had just re-attached a limb or something of that importance.

"Speaking of here, where am I?" I crossed my arms and glared at Jack, trying not to put any of my glare on Mr Jon. He didn't deserve that.

Jack put his hands up in a, "sorry", gesture. "I'm not allowed to say anything about that. I have to go. Don't give him any trouble."

Jack strode off into the wall, leaving Mr Jon and me in the room.

I un-crossed my arms and nodded to Mr Jon. "I don't believe we have met. I'm Jason."

He nodded curtly and said, "you can call me Jon. I believe you are trying to learn how to use aura?"

"Yeah. But I only really started learning yesterday. Well, possibly yesterday. I have no clue what time it is now."

Jon shrugged and sat on the ground with his legs crossed. I mimicked him and waited. Even if this guy was actually working for the WPO, I needed to learn how to use aura to protect myself. So I would learn what I could.

We spent a few hours at it. It turned out he had a limited range of aura sight, only about ten yards, but no aura speaking ability. His limited ability with aura sight actually spoke volumes about his ability with aura. While a few humans had potential to use aura, very few could actually harness its uses in such a successful manner as he had. In the time he was teaching me, I learned that he was actually in charge of teaching Lucario how to use aura. He was known as the, "Aura Guru", wherever he was from.

In the hours we spent together, he taught me how to better focus my aura for aura sight. I was able to open up my brain to the world around me and my range at the end of the practicing was about four yards. A feat he considered quite impressive compared to the Lucario he usually taught.

Once three or four hours had passed, more or less, I heard something buzz from Jon's pocket and he pulled out a device that he glanced at for a moment.

He stood while saying, "sorry. They said I have to leave now."

I remained sitting as I nodded sadly at him. While I knew he was there strictly for teaching me, he was good company. And I knew when he left all I would have to amuse myself was to train. Which would get old after another hour of doing it alone.

Once he went into the wall, leaving me all on my own, I closed my eyes and focused like Mr Jon had instructed me to.

I felt my aura sensing organs lift into the air and an image soon became visible behind my eyelids. Everything was covered in a blue glow that was basically just sitting there. When Jon was in the room with me, I saw his form with my aura. I remembered that his aura seemed to be like rolling flame that came from his center. It was always moving, giving an impression of actually being alive.

While I had only tried it on one person, I knew that all living things would look like the flickering figure Jon had appeared as while I used aura sight. It was part instinct and part guesswork.

I practiced using aura sight until the combination of boredom and a rising headache forced me to stop. I was tired, so I got on the bed and went to sleep. There was literally nothing else productive to do. As I closed my eyes, I felt an eerie sense of being watched by someone. Unable to shake the strange feeling, I couldn't get to sleep for a long time.

SHADE'S POV

"What do you mean you failed!?" I cringed at my father's tone, beginning to regret my rebellion.

"It wasn't my fault. I tried to hit him with that special pokeball that they gave me, but he hit it with an aura sphere. What was I supposed to do?" I made a valid point, technically. But my father was out for blood. Mine in particular.

He sat himself back in his chair and I saw him grind his teeth. We were in his office at Team Styx's HQ. He had the top floor all to himself and his office. The walls were adorned with different works of art that my father rarely even glanced at.

"I thought," he began in how wrathful tone, "I told you that failing that mission was not an option."

I stayed silent. Speaking at this point would probably not end well for me.

"And now, thanks to your failure, I've gotten word that the WPO has it in protective custody at-"

"Him," I interrupted him, to my own shock and his.

"What?", He demanded.

I flinched and said, "he is a guy. Not an object. He was even human at one point."

My father looked at me with eyes that were full of anger and I feared that I pushed too hard this time.

"Get out," he ordered, and I quickly moved to comply with his demand.

"Going to be a pain in the ass, but I'm going to get him either way. One way or another," he muttered to himself as I got out of his office. He sometimes did that. I knew that kind of behavior meant that he was completely intent on achieving whatever he was focused on at the time.

And Arceus help any man, woman, or Pokemon that stood in his way.

JASON'S POV

Perhaps it was the feeling of multiple shockwaves that woke me up. Or maybe it was the ominous rumbling that followed the explosions. But one of them woke me from my sleep and put me on high alert.

I sat up on my bed and listened closely for more indications of violence. Less than a minute later another explosion, this one much closer, literally shook some dust from the ceiling.

I stood and realized that the WPO was under attack. Perhaps this was my chance to break out of here? I could slip away in all the confusion. On the other hand, I could also be attacked by either side and hurt badly.

As I debated, I heard a faint electric sound. It sounded like some sort of electric attack that was hitting something. Moments later, this middle aged guy stepped into my little room and locked his eyes on me.

"Come with me," he ordered, but I took a step back. The guy had a pistol in his hand (aimed at the ground) and was wearing some kind of uniform that looked designed for battle protection. The thing is, he had no kind of identification on him. There was no indication of the WPO sign on him anywhere. He looked well built and his hard face spoke of extensive military training.

"What's happening out there? And who do you work for?" I prepared to throw a aura sphere, judging whether or not to throw it based on his upcoming answer.

The man rolled his eyes and said, "I was told to take you from here and deliver you to the safe zone. Now hurry up! The roof will be collapsing any minute!"

This forced my decision. I lowered my defensive stance and he grabbed my shoulder as he went through the wall, pulling me after him. It felt as though I was going through a very thick mist while he pulled my through the wall. I shuddered at what might happen if the guy released me halfway through and grabbed his arm to assure my contact with him. I couldn't see anything aside from the guy who had my shoulder. Everything else was a tan blankness.

After about ten full steps, I saw the blankness disappear and that we were standing in a room.

Scratch that. We were standing in what used to be a room. The room was missing one full wall and about a third of another. The contents of the room appeared to be sparking computers with busted screens and a large table in the middle. The loud sound of a distress siren cut out all other noise and made hearing anything else very difficult.

I saw that there was a leg sticking out from behind the table, hidden by a chair.

"I think there is someone who's hurt!" I immediately start to move to the injured person but the man's iron grip stopped me cold.

"We don't have time! You are priority! Let's go!" He started to pull my towards the smaller hole but I shook out of his grip and ran to the person. Even as I went to him I felt the building shake slightly and knew that we didn't have long before it would all come down.

I saw it was a scrawny guy with a pair of slightly crooked glasses on. He appeared to be unconscious, but uninjured. I quickly grabbed the guy and threw him over my shoulder as the man came over to me.

He scoweled and just waved. "Let's go!"

I was annoyed at his casual dismissing of a person in mortal danger and only barely kept myself from punching the man. Instead, I followed him as he ran through more destroyed rooms and other holes.

I kept an eye out for other unconscious or hurt people, but I saw none. The man led me through the building for almost three minutes before I recognized a strange popping sound.

Gunfire. I heard the sound of some heavy weaponry being used against something and I felt a shiver go down my spine. Even as I opened my mouth to ask the man who was attacking, I heard a shot and saw a hole appear in the wall a few feet to my right.

"Go! Go! Go! Now!" The man lifted his pistol and started taking shots at whoever had started shooting at us. I didn't argue with the man and sprinted down the path we had been taking. Other gunshots caused the floor and walls around me to explode and hit me with some mildly painful shrapnel.

I kept running, and somehow wasn't shot, until I saw a opening to the outside. The sunlight glowed through the dust that had been kicked up and I put a on new burst of speed to reach the sunlight.

Even as I burst to the outside, I saw that I had arrived in a war zone. Many holes had been blown out of the building I had just exited and I saw several different people being attacked by Pokemon that were commanded by a single person.

"This way, Jason!" I paused for a moment to locate the source of the name caller.

It was a woman with a Kirlia at the edge of the battlefield, almost 100 yards away through an intense war zone. She waved for me to come to her as they took cover from attack.

I took a path that weaved around all of the major fighting and I only stopped long enough to catch my breath after dodging a stray bullet by a hair. Literally, the bullet cut an almost unnoticeable furrow in my fur and caused me to duck behind a giant piece of concrete to avoid getting shot. Even as I took a moment to rest and catch my breath, I saw that my chances of getting myself out of the fighting without injury was very low. And even lower with the burden of the scrawny guy over my shoulder.

I actually contemplated leaving the guy where I currently was. It seemed pretty safe and leaving him would have increased my chance to get to safety. And they would easily find him, being only a little ways away from the building and all.

I noticed a shadow approach to my left and tried to move away from the shadow as quietly as I could. The caster of the shadow, a Metagross, glanced into my little hiding place and I flinched.

The Metagross glared at me and I saw a small ball of light begin to form in front of the Pokemon.

"Shit!" I screamed as I grabbed the unconscious guy and hauled butt out of the hiding spot before the Metagross could charge up its Hyper Beam fully and blast us.

I managed to avoid several stray attacks from other people and Pokemon as I un-gracefully sprinted the last thirty yards to the woman with the Kirlia.

Once I jumped behind the barrier that the woman was hiding behind, I let the unconscious guy fall from my shoulder as I collapsed onto the ground and laid there, gasping for oxygen.

"I assume you are Jason Simmons?" I turn my head to the woman and nodded, too wiped out for speaking.

The woman nodded and waved for the Kirlia to come closer.

"Kirlia. Take us to the pre-determined location."

The Kirlia put her hands on me and the woman and I managed to ask, "what about him?"

I pointed at the unconscious guy and the woman shrugged. "They will find him out here. Kirlia, use Teleport."

Before I could say anything else, a white light covered my entire body and I felt completely weightless for a few seconds. Before I could enjoy the weightless feeling, I felt gravity return and saw that we were in a grassy field.

I got to my feet and faced the woman with her Kirlia.

"Thanks for getting me out of there."

The woman made a dismissive gesture and seemed to look around us for something.

She focused on something over my shoulder and smiled in a way that spoke of wicked intentions.

I felt fear shoot up my spine and jumped straight up into the air, barely dodging the two Pokeballs that had been launched at me just seconds before. Only my recent training alerted me about the thrown pokeballs a moment before they would have hit me.

I managed to twist in the air and saw that the throwers had on the same jacket that Shade had worn when he came for me. The woman who brought me there must also work for Team Styx!

"**Team Styx!**" I screamed in a voice filled with rage, overwhelmingly angry at the change in events and the new betrayal.

I launched several aura spheres at the throwers. One was knocked to the ground while the other narrowly dodged the spheres and readied another pokeball.

"Just give up," the woman said with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

"Not going to happen. I'm not about to let you suck me dry just to fuel a bomb!" I punctuated my words by sprinting forward and slamming a Force Palm into the man's stomach. I felt a few cracks from the impact and I knew that all his breath had been driven from his lungs.

As the man flew back, the woman said, "Oh for the love of Arceus, Kirlia, use Physic."

The Kirlia raised her arms and I used Extremespeed to appear right behind the small Pokemon.

I remembered something that I had learned in class a year ago, in Anatomy. Most physic types had a special nerve cluster at the base of their necks that triggered teleportation. Naturally, a strong impact to this spot would activate the psychic ability.

With this in mind, I grabbed the Kirlia around her entire body with one arm and jabbed one of my fingers into a random spot on her neck. I suppose I got lucky, because a white light surrounded me for a few moments before quickly disappearing. As it disappeared, I noticed two things at once.

One. The Kirlia had not appeared with me.

And two. I was not at ground level. I was in the air. Quite high in fact. So high, that I knew I was completely screwed if I hit the ground.

The weightlessness associated with teleportation disappeared and I immediately began to fall.

"_Aaaaaahhhhhh_!" I screamed both mentally and with my regular vocal cords. Apparently Lucario vocal cords can imitate a guy's scream as well as a regular humans.

I fell with my chest spike facing the ground and my arms and legs extended in a sky divers position. Unfortunately, I had no parachute.

I saw that the ground was covered in lush plant life and I hoped that I would land on a giant bush, or something soft. That, at least, would give me a slim chance of survival.

As I fell, I heard a sound different than the sound of wind rushing past my ears and I flinched. I heard a unfamiliar screeching noise and I turned my head to the origin of the noise.

A grey blur flew across the sky, towards me, and I recognized it as a Skarmory.

The Skarmory flew faster than I could follow, but I saw that it would meet my flight path in only a few seconds and I prepared for impact.

The Skarmory caught me on its back and I nearly fell off before I got a handhold on some of the bird Pokemon's metallic feathers. The grunt of pain that Skarmory made told me that I had hurt him, but only a little. Strangely enough, the impact wasn't that bad. I didn't feel much pain at the moment of impact and just assumed that I had been falling slower than expected.

The Skarmory made a circle and I held onto his feathers with everything I had. Skarmory flew for a few seconds before slowing down and landing.

I fell off his back and laid on the ground completely dazed and a little out of it. After a minute of just laying on the ground, just staring at the sky, I noticed a voice trying to catch my attention.

"Hey! Are you alright, Lucario?" I managed to turn my head to the source of the voice and saw a guy who looked in his mid twenties walking towards me with a concerned look. He had on a familiar jacket that a lot of trainers wore and I saw he had a few badges pinned to his shirt that he had probably earned. He had a pair of shorts on that had a lot of pockets and a backpack that a lot of trainers used.

Before I could really answer, I saw his face morph into a fearful expression and he gasped.

"You're bleeding!", He ran over to me and grabbed a squirt bottle looking thing out of his backpack.

Why did he get out a super potion? Was I really bleeding? Even as I asked myself the question, I felt a sharp pain and saw that there was a long piece of thin grey metal sticking straight through my right leg. It went straight through the meaty part of my thigh and there was already a lot of blood soaking my fur and pants. It turned my fur red and quickly spread, like a infectious disease, across my shorts.

I said, "oh. I am bleeding." Then I felt an enormous wave of pain overwhelm me and I passed out for the second time in two days.

* * *

Finally got this one out. Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. I hit a bit of a writer's block when I tried writing and it took me awhile to find inspiration. I have to ask for readers to please review, it is very uplifting. And it doesn't even have to be very much, just a happy face would suffice. I've only gotten a rather low amount of reviews and that's pretty depressing. And send in suggestions for the new guy I introduced via PM please. I would like to have more reader participation in my stories. It also helps me give little more direction to the story.


	14. Chapter14 Kind stranger and a old grudge

Curse of the Lucario chap 14

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon. I don't claim to own Pokemon. I only lay claim on the storyline and the original characters that I have created.

Finally got this chapter out. I waited for five days for someone to send in a suggestion for the new guy, but no one did. So I wrote what I had originally planned. Hope you like what I came up with, It's not at my best. The gods of sudden inspiration hath forsaken me :(

And without further ado, enjoy.

* * *

Chapter 14

JASON'S POV

I rose out of the darkness that tried to pull me back down and managed to come back to partial consciousness. I felt something soft beneath my head but the rest of my body was on something hard and slightly bumpy. I tried to move my arm but only twitched a little.

"Hey, I think he's waking up." I heard a voice that was vaguely familiar and tried opening my eyes.

I managed to open up my right eye and after I blinked away the blurry image, I saw that I was only a few feet away from a rock wall that seemed to move slightly. I managed to get my other eye open and saw that the "moving" affect was caused by the flickering flames of a fire that was burning somewhere behind me.

"Hey, you alright?", I heard the familiar voice again and turned my head to the left.

I saw that I was in a cave that appeared to be unoccupied by wild Pokemon. The guy who I saw, before I passed out, was sitting on a large rock by a fire that had something cooking over it. I saw that he had short blond hair that the fire reflected off of and a friendly face that seemed younger than what he actually appeared to be.

"Yeah," I said as I pushed myself so that I leaned against the caves wall. I felt a sharp sting from my leg and I saw that my right thigh was heavily wrapped in bandages.

The guy got up from his seat and came over to me, saying, "might want to take it easy. The feather went straight through your leg and out the other side. It was plain luck that it didn't hit any major veins or muscles."

As he checked the bandage I said with a confused tone, thinking I had misheard, "feather? How did a feather stab me?"

He answered without looking up, "yeah. Skarmory's feathers are as strong as steel. One of them must have been bent straight up and must've broke when you landed on his back. I had to pull it out and apply plenty of medicine to it before it finally stopped bleeding."

"Oh," I said, feeling both a little nauseous and confused.

After he finished checking the bandage, he went back over to the fire and messed with whatever was in the pan. I realized that a very tantalizing smell surrounded me and my stomach growled loud enough for the guy to hear it.

He smiled and said, "guess you're hungry? I have some fried berries that are almost ready. You want some?"

I nodded with an embarrassed look. I was very grateful to this guy. He could've let me fall, he could've let me deal with the bleeding on my own, but he didn't. And now he was cooking for me. Few people are so generous to others they do not even know.

A few moments passed with only the sound of the fire popping.

"Do you remember what happened? How you fell from the sky?" The guy took his eyes from the food and stared at me, waiting for my answer.

I shifted and said, "well first off, the name is Jason Simmons. Thanks for saving me."

The guy smiled and nodded. "The name is Roderick Greene. But I prefer to be called Rick. How exactly did you end up that high? I didn't see any planes or bird Pokemon flying overhead."

I chuckled and shook my head. "No. I teleported. I hit that sweet spot on a Kirlias neck that forces teleportation and I appeared here without the Kirlia. I guess that, since she couldn't concentrate on bringing me along, I got teleported to somewhere random. By the way, where am I?"

The guy grabbed a map out of his bag and pointed to a spot on it while turning it in my direction.

"Somewhere in this general area. It's a good ways to any large cities in any direction out here. I came out here to train my Pokemon."

"Well crap," I muttered when I saw where I was. I was about a third of the way around the world from my home, according to Rick's map.

I leaned back against the wall and thought for a moment.

Rick put away the map and checked the food. After tasting it, he declared, "it's done. Here," and he handed my a small plate with some sizzling berries on top.

"Thanks," I said before digging in. I saw Rick put some food on a third plate and he laid it down on the opposite side of the fire. I then noticed the Flareon that was laying on its stomach, out of my line of sight.

"Eat up Flareon. Remember, we have some tough training tomorrow."

The fire Pokemon accepted the food with a grunt and dug in.

For awhile, only the sounds of eating were heard. As I ate, I wondered how in the world I was going to get back home. I was practically on the other side of the world with no resources, no contacts, and injured. Top off the fact that the WPO and Team Styx were both probably looking for me, and I could not see a viable way of getting back home in one piece.

"Penny for your thoughts?", I flinched when I realized that I had been staring out into space and had stopped eating.

I shook my head as I ate some more and said, "It's nothing. I'm just trying to think of a way to get home."

Rick chewed the last bit of his food with a thoughtful look on his face before saying, "well do you have a trainer that's looking for you?"

I looked up in surprise. Did he not know who I was?

"Um. No. I have no trainer. And have you heard about the guy who turned into a Lucario?"

I glanced up and thought for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I heard some rumor from a friend. But I thought I misheard him due to all the static. It's nearly impossible to get a decent signal out here."

He then blinked, and asked, "so are you the guy? It would explain the pants and the weird thing in your ear."

"Yeah, I'm the guy," I extended my arms to the side in a, "hey, look at me!", gesture.

"Well that makes our job so much easier." I jumped as a new, voice appeared at the mouth of the cave, which was about thirty yards from where we were at in the back of the cave. I noticed it was deep and masculine.

"Who's there?" Rick jumped up and I used the wall to get in a standing position, putting all the weight on my uninjured left leg. It stung like no one's business, but it kept me upright.

"You idiot, we could've just taken them out when they weren't expecting it!" Another voice, this one feminine and irritated, hissed at the other person.

"I'll say it again, who are you? And what did you mean, "take them out?"

The woman sighed and I saw two figures stand and walk into the cave. Once the light revealed the Team Styx symbol on their chests, I charged up an aura sphere in both hands and aimed at the two. They both smirked and started to raise some sort of weapon to shoot me with.

I released my aura spheres at the exact moment that they pulled the triggers and shot little hypodermic darts at me and Rick.

As luck would have it, my aura sphere managed to intercept the small dart and destroy it while continuing on its path to the woman. The dart aimed for Rick hit him in the arm and he immediately yanked it out.

The two aura spheres reached the Styx members and one slammed into the ground in front of them while the other slammed into the cave wall. As they flew backwards and out of the cave, I felt a strange vibration from the wall and my heart jumped.

Even as I realized what was happening, the mouth of the cave collapsed, trapping us inside.

"No! No! No! No!" I screamed as I tried to step forward, only to fall painfully.

"Humugdefip cuhdafp." I looked over at Rick and saw that his eyes were glazed over and he was stumbling around, mumbling incoherently.

After a few seconds of this, he fell to his knees and then fell on his side. The drugs in the dart must've got into his system before he had a chance to yank it out.

The Flareon went over to his trainer and began to poke him in the face.

"I don't think that's going to wake him up. It'll probably be awhile before the drugs wear off."

The Flareon glanced at me and huffed angrily. He then laid down next to his trainer, and went to sleep.

"You've got to be kidding me. You're going to sleep right now?"

The Flareon opened one eye and nodded before going back to his nap.

Stupid Pokemon, I thought. Not actually letting the thought be said out loud by the communicator.

I forced myself to crawl to Rick and I flipped him over and on his back. I grabbed the pillow I had been using, which happened to be his rolled up jacket, and put it under his head. Oh how our roles reversed so suddenly. The irony nearly made me smile. Nearly.

Instead, I went over to Ricks backpack and began to search for anything useful to help get out of the cave. I found four pokeballs that, according to some stickers on them, had Pokemon within. I made sure not to touch the non-sticker pokeballs as I dumped out the occupied ones.

I saw that one had a flame on it and reasoned that that was Flareons pokeball.

"You might as well return." I held up the pokeball in the Pokemons direction and he was immediately sucked up by a red light to continue his nap.

I put Flareons pokeball down and looked at the other stickers. One had a iron feather on it, probably Skarmory. One had a water drop on it and the last one had a picture of tan sand with a cut through it. Maybe a ground type that could help in this situation?

"Come on out, whatever you are." I tossed the pokeball in the air and the light formed into a Sandslash.

The Sandslash had its back to me, and after a moment of looking around, turned to me and growled while raising its claws.

"Wait just a minute," I said while holding up my hands in a defensive gesture. "Both Rick and I need your help. He's been knocked out by something in a dart that was shot into him and we've been trapped in a cave. See?" I pointed at what used to be the cave mouth and the Sandslash nodded and stared at me, waiting for instructions.

"Well I need you to use dig and dig us a way out of here. Preferably in that direction," I pointed in the opposite direction of the mouth of the cave and the mouse Pokemon gave me an questioning look.

To clarify, I said, "I'm not sure if the people who attacked us are still out there or not. And I doubt we would be able to fight them off in our condition."

Sandslash nodded once more than jumped in the air and began tunneling straight down.

After a moment I grabbed the last pokeball, the one with a water drop on it, and let whatever was inside, out.

Once the white light coalesced into a Pokemon, I saw that it had been a Buizel that was inside.

After explaining what had happened to Rick, and persuading the hot headed Pokemon to not attack me, I managed to get the water type to get back in his pokeball.

I dug around in Ricks backpack a little more to see if he had anything else that would help us. I found nothing that would really help. Just some clothes, a few survival basics, and some berries along with a few other things.

I heard Rick groan after awhile and crawled next to him.

"Hey, you feeling ok?", I asked him as he slowly regained consciousness.

He let out a small incoherent sound before coughing and saying, "where am I? Why can't I see anything?"

To my shock, I discovered that the fire had gone out in the last few minutes and left the cave in total darkness. My eyes allowed me to see almost perfectly, with only a few minor differences to day sight.

"Sorry. I didn't notice it had gotten so dark. Let me find a flashlight." I went back to his backpack and dug out a small flashlight I had noticed earlier. I turned the beam away from him and flicked it on.

"Here, you take this," I handed him the flashlight when I saw he was sitting up and looked only mildly ill.

"What happened? I remember seeing those two goons outside the cave and feeling a painful sting, but the rest is a blur. Are we trapped?"

I nodded and said, "yeah. The cave collapsed when I hit them with a double aura sphere attack. One of them managed to hit you with some sort of knockout dart before getting blown out of the cave. The attack caused the cave to collapse at the entrance."

Rick absorbed all this with a nod and motioned for his backpack, which I passed to him.

"I sent out your Sandslash to dig us a way out of here. I hope you don't mind." I made sure to apologize. Some trainers got very irate when someone aside from themselves touched their Pokemon's pokeball.

But Rick just waved his hand in a dismissing gesture. "It's no problem. Dammit!"

The curse was due to the batteries in the flashlight running out and plunging us back into darkness. I could see, thanks to my eyes. Rick, on the other hand, was as blind as a Zubat in broad daylight at a rock concert.

"Stupid thing! I replaced its batteries about two weeks ago and its already out? Waste of Poké. You don't happen to have any batteries in your pocket, do you?"

I shook my head and nearly face palmed, he wasn't able to see me.

"No, sorry. But let me try something." I had an idea that would either give us light to see by, or create a painful explosion.

I focused my aura in a way that was similar to an aura sphere. The only difference was that an aura spheres power normally was in a barely controlled membrane of calm aura while the inside aura swirled around madly, trying to escape. Instead of the wild aura that normally accompanied an aura sphere, I made the inner aura calm and lethargic. And made the usually thin membrane a thick coating.

Since aura normally wants to be in motion, the friction between the inner aura and the membrane aura created a surprisingly bright light. The end result was a cool-to-the-touch, very bright, bouncy ball sized aura light bulb that glowed with a blue light.

"Here, I think this aught to hold itself for awhile." I gingerly handed the small ball of aura to Rick and warned him, "try not to squeeze it too hard or drop it. I have no clue how explosive the reaction would be. Never tried that before, so this is a test run."

Rick accepted the glowing ball with an apprehensive glance and a nod. After taking a moment to let his head clear, he stood and went over to the hole that Sandshrew had dug.

"Hey Sandshrew! How's it going down there?!" I covered my ears as he yelled down into the hole. I didn't catch the response, but I saw Rick nod.

"He says he thinks he's close to an exit. Let's get going. Can you walk at all?"

I tried to stand and my leg gave out before I could stand up completely. I sat back up and shook my head, irritated at my weakness.

"I might not be able to stand, but I can crawl. Give me the light and I'll lead the way. If it explodes then I'll probably survive due to my bodies tougher resistance to damage."

Rick frowned but handed over the light. I waited until he grabbed his backpack and jacket before heading down the tunnel that Sandshrew had dug only a few minutes before.

We crawled along the narrow tunnel in silence for about ten minutes before getting to the exit that Sandshrew was waiting by.

"Thanks Sandshrew. Go ahead and have a nice rest." I saw Rick return Sandshrew to his pokeball and we exited the darkness of the cave. I crawled to the outside and settled on a large rock.

I saw that Sandshrew had picked a good spot to exit from, even if it was on accident. We were on a large flat ledge (on the side of a small mountain) that overlooked a large area that was a mix of woodland and grassland. It was very high, but I saw an easy way to get down using a path that was conveniently near where we were. While it was still very dark, I saw the sun starting to rise and judged that it would be up within an hour.

Rick got out of the cave and stretched while groaning, "I think I'm going to avoid caves for a little while."

"Sorry. It's my fault that you were knocked out in the first place and it was my doing that caused the cave to collapse."

"Nah. You were just defending yourself in addition to me. If you hadn't, I still would have been knocked out and probably captive like you. And I wasn't about to allow them to just take you. You're an intelligent being with thoughts, emotions, and your own opinions." His face showed the level of intensity behind his words and it was very inspiring.

I looked at him with even more respect, surprised at his willingness to help a total stranger and to not get angry at very stressful situations. Very few people had qualities like him.

"You sound a bit like a Pokemon Ranger. You ever consider becoming one?"

He shrugged and said, "I would love to. But I have no idea where to even begin that kind of path. I just decided to go on a journey and collect a few badges before heading down that career path."

I thought about Mr Brown and said, "I have a friend who's a Ranger. No guarantees, but I can try to hook you up with him if you're serious about becoming a Ranger."

He turned from the area of forest he had been looking at and looked at me with hopeful eyes.

"You really mean it? You would do that for a guy you barely know?"

I chuckled and said, "dude, I think I owe you a lot more than you think. You saved my life, bandaged me up, and gave me food. Heck, I would find a Ranger if I didn't already know one, just to help you out."

Rick smiled widely and said, "well thanks. Let's see about getting you home and then we can talk more about that."

I nodded and then realized, while I had a general idea of where we were, I had no clue which way was the way to the closest city or town.

"Umm. Which way do we start walking?", I asked him and he grabbed his map out.

After studying it for a little while, he pointed directly in the direction of the rising Sun and said, "there is a city about thirty miles that way. It aught to have some sort of airport or air travel available. Even better, it has a gym that I can battle at."

I smiled and said, "well then, it appears that each of our needs coincide perfectly in that one place."

I glanced in the direction he pointed and scoweled, I didn't see any city within eyesight. This was going to be a long walk.

"Well," Rick says as he puts his backpack on, "might as well get going."

I tried to stand and I managed to stay up, even with the waves of protest coming from my leg. While I could stand in one place for awhile, walking was not an option in my condition.

Rick, thankfully, noticed my difficulty in standing and said, "wait a minute. Let me try to find something that you can use as a crutch."

"Alright." I didn't argue and sat back down on the rock, glad to let the ever present pain ease.

Rick walked down the path a little ways and soon came jogging back.

He held out a long stick with a V on the end. "Here. Just cut off any extra and use it like a crutch."

I accepted the stick with a nod and tried standing with it. After cutting the bottom off a little, because it was a little tall, we started making our way down the mountain and towards the city in the distance.

* * *

SHADE'S POV

I knew that my father was hell-bent on getting that Lucario guy, but even I was shocked at the measures he took to try and get the once-human Pokemon.

"He WHAT!?" I screamed when Benjamin told me the news of the attack on the WPO headquarters.

Benjamin flinched and took a step back. "Sorry man, don't shoot the messenger."

"And is this, "informant", reliable?" He had heard it from a mysterious figure that he sometimes got top secret or down low information from.

"You know he's always right. Hasn't let me down so far."

I cursed violently for a moment with great volume and ferocity. Thankfully, Ben had decided to tell me in my room, so there was no problem to my cursing.

He let me go on until I petered out of unused words.

Once I regained some of my cool, I thanked him for the info and gave him the pre-agreed sum of eight of his favorite candy bars. He was almost addicted to chocolate and needed some almost every day. It caused him to shock people more, so I kept my distance from him after giving him the bars.

He left and I grabbed my jacket, planning to go see my father, when I heard a knock at my door.

I opened it and saw Sierra leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a small smile on her face.

"I don't believe I've heard you speak in such a fashion before. What's wrong?"

"Come in, I'll explain." I opened the door wider and let her in before I explained how my father had attacked the WPO HQ in broad daylight. Just to get that guy who turned into a Lucario.

After I did, she jumped up and down in excitement and practically squealed, "maybe someone will finally take down this horrible organization!" Sierra hated Team Styx because they had forced her father to let them put the Lopunny genes in her. She had accepted the fact that it was irreversible, but she wanted revenge. That's why she never got to leave the building unless she was under heavy guard or with a tracking device on.

I sympathized with her feelings for Team Styx, but I knew that the chances of the WPO catching wind of the HQ was slim to none. The only people who really knew where in the world (literally) the HQ was, was my father, myself, and a few others. The rest were always teleported in or brought in after a ride of many hours while blindfolded or sedated.

But I didn't let my feelings show and instead smiled and said, "let's hope so. It would be nice to live a somewhat normal life."

The last part was the truth. I would love to live a normal life. But the existence of Team Styx would never let that dream come true.

Once she got finished celebrating, she left and I went to the elevator and hit the button to go to my father's office.

The moment the doors opened, I strode right by the receptionists desk and didn't even wait for her to inform him of my coming. I just walked straight into his office and to his desk. He looked up from some papers he had been reading and scoweled when he saw me.

"What do you want? I'm busy." Yeah, he was full of fatherly love like this.

I stopped a few feet from his desk and said, "I know you really wanted that guy who's a Lucario, but did you really have to do a full assault on the HQ of the most powerful organization on this planet to get to him?"

His scowl deepened and he said, "how did you learn of this? The team only got back about two hours ago."

I waved my hand and said, "a little Pidgey whispered it in my ear."

My father grinded his teeth in agitation and hissed, "it didn't work. Bastard got away from the first capture team."

"First?"

He nodded. "Yes. It somehow made the retrieval Kirlia teleport it to a random location. I sent another team out to track where it went and to capture him by sedating it then bringing it here."

Throughout the sentence, I had to prevent myself from correcting him. The guy was a "he", not an it. He should be given the same respect as any other person.

Before I could respond, his computer started to beep with an incoming video call and my father let it come through.

"Status report, you get the target?" He asks the screen, paying me no attention.

"Negative Mr Mutatin. We-"

"What do you mean, "negative"!? It was simple mission!"

I could tell the guy on the other end of the line was sweating now.

"Well, the target was with some trainer who had brought him into a cave. When we tried to sedate him, he managed to hit us with an aura sphere and made the mouth of the cave collapse as we flew out."

I heard my father's voice raise with hope. "So he's trapped in there, right? Ready for someone to dig him right out? Correct?"

"We are not sure, sir. We don't know if the trainer had any ground types that could tunnel them out or not. And we do not have any of our own."

My father seemed to lean between getting angry again, and calming down. Surprisingly, he said, "I'll be sending a team equipped with ground types within an hour. You will have them clear the way in the tunnel and report in after learning of his location or capturing him. Do I make myself clear."

It wasn't a question, but the man said, "yes sir. We will activate our beacon and wait for the ground team."

My father cut the connection and sat back in his chair with a sigh.

"So I guess you're closing in on him," I say, secretly hoping that Jason got away.

My father nodded and I saw a hint of a smile appear. Disgusted with his smile, I headed for the door and almost missed his final whispered words.

"It's almost over. I almost have what I need. I'll finally have the last piece to put them in their place."

With these last works bouncing around my head, I left the room with a ominous premonition crawling up my spine. I never really knew my father's reason for becoming the leader of Team Styx, but now, I was scared at whatever he was planning.

I had learned that, when Devan Mutatin held a grudge over someone, that someone usually ended up dead or something close enough to not matter. And when I thought about it, there was a pretty short list of obvious targets that he wouldn't mind destroying completely and utterly.

The government that branded him a wanted man was prominent on that short list.

* * *

**Got this chapter out after overcoming the writers block that had taken control for awhile. I'm kinda disappointed to say that no one sent in a PM for what became Rick. I would love more reader participation in my stories. And since my summer literally started today, I'll be checking my profile a lot more often and writing more as well. Please review and tell me what you think. Also, I'm going to try to put up a poll on my profile for what this government that Devan Mutatin has a grudge against right after posting this. Please vote and let me know what kind you wish to see. And send in any Pokemon you wish to see or characters you wish to see me create in this story. Also, tell me what you would like the other human/Pokemon hybrids would be like (what Pokemon genes they have inserted etc).**


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